To the left hand, the view was closed by a
thick belt of second growth, through which the sandy road and glittering
stream wandered away together on their mazy path, and over which the
summits of yet loftier and more rugged steeps towered heavenward.
Over this valley they had for some time gazed in silence, till now the
broad sun sank behind the mountains, and the shrill whistle of the
quail, which had been momently audible during the whole afternoon,
ceased suddenly; four or five night-hawks might be seen wheeling high in
pursuit of their insect prey through the thin atmosphere, and the sharp
chirrup of a solitary katydid, the last of its summer tribe, was the
only sound that interrupted the faint rush of the rapid stream, which
came more clearly on the ear now that the louder noises of busy babbling
daylight had yielded to the stillness of approaching night. Before long
a bright gleam shot through the tufted outline of a dark wooded hill,
and shortly after, just when a gray and misty shadow had settled down
upon the half-seen landscape, the broad full moon came soaring up above
the tree-tops, pouring her soft and silver radiance over the lovely
valley, and investing its rare beauties with something of romance--a
sentiment which belongs not to the gay, gaudy sunshine.
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