By and by
they partially dispersed, giving glimpses of the mountain ramparts
through their obscurity, the separate clouds lying heavily upon the
mountain's breast. In warm mornings, after rain, the mist breaks forth
from the forests on the ascent of the mountains, like smoke,--the smoke
of a volcano; then it soars up, and becomes a cloud in heaven. But these
clouds to-day were real rain-clouds. Sometimes, it is said, while
laboring up the mountain-side, they suddenly burst, and pour down their
moisture in a cataract, sweeping all before it.
Every new aspect of the mountains, or view from a different position,
creates a surprise in the mind.
Scenes and characters:--A young country fellow, twenty or thereabouts,
decently dressed, pained with the toothache. A doctor, passing on
horseback, with his black leather saddle-bags behind him, a thin,
frosty-haired man. Being asked to operate, he looks at the tooth, lances
the gum, and the fellow being content to be dealt with on the spot, he
seats himself in a chair on the stoop with great heroism. The doctor
produces a rusty pair of iron forceps; a man holds the patient's head;
the doctor perceives that, it being a difficult tooth to get at, wedged
between the two largest in his jaws, he must pull very hard; and the
instrument is introduced.
Pages:
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210