Upon leaving this bath, the doctor prescribes that the subject go directly to his room, and not expose himself to the action of the air upon his person, until the profuse perspiration, which is the effect of bathing, has left the surface. We did so, and found the most agreeable the eye very agreeably, relieved as it is against the deep masses of foliage that rise one over the other to the summit of the noble range of mountains that overhang it on the south and east. The approach from below, as you come from Warm Springs, is not so fine: but that from the west is indeed very picturesque, equal-effects resulting from the precaution: and our first exling any landscape I have met among these mountains. The buildings here are roughly built, and when nearly viewed, present no very attractive appearance, being scattered here and there without much method or order, and inviting the visiter less by any exterior attractions of their own than by the positive and intrinsic virtues which they possess. Dismounting here with my companion, we engaged a comfortable cabin, (a palace to any thing we had enjoyed at White Sulphur,) ate a breakfast, which by the same standard of comparison or contrast, might well be called a feast, and then sat down to read the welcome letters which we here found awaiting us from home. As we approach the Hot Springs from the west, by the mountain road, we come suddenly upon it as we pass through a narrow gorge between the hills; and viewed hence, it presents a beautiful landscape to the eye of the traveller. The road descends from this gorge into a valley, the riddle of which is low and somewhat marshy, and here the springs are situated. The buildings erected over them, for the accommodation of visiters, are unsightly in construction and in their relative location, and of course add nothing to the beauty of the situation, as a whole. The hotel, too, on nearing it, is converted from the lovely little cottage which your fancy has led you to imagine it, into a white-washed and inconveniently constructed old fashioned house, of no very attractive exterior or interior. Here we found several of the recent residents at White Sulphur, who had, like ourselves, come to this region, to put the finishing stroke to their experiments upon the waters of the Virginia Springs. We are now comfortably bestowed in a neat, new, unfinished little box, that is nevertheless a stately mansion compared with any thing in Fly Row,-and we breakfasted as princes would be glad to breakfast after a fortnight at White Sulphur. After this operation, we called to see Dr. Goode, the intelligent proprietor of these springs, who advised us to commence with the trial of the "Spout Bath." At the proper hour, therefore, we entered a low wood building, where disencumbering ourselves of our apparel, we stepped into a round basin of water that seemed scalding at first, and from which the first impulse is to draw back with something of a start. But being thereto encouraged, we persevered until we stood up to our ears in water of the temperature of about 170 degrees of Fahrenheit. It was a very pleasant bath, and almost equally so with that at Warm Springs, already described, though I must confess I should prefer the latter as a matter of mere pleasure. In this basin a hollow log has been constructed, which conducts water of the same temperature so as to fall on any part of the person the patient pleases,—and this is what gives the bath its name. I found the Spout quite agreeable. There is a constant rising of gas in this spring, which renders it a most delicious bath; it seems to buoy the body up towards the surface, and by sensibly diminishing the weight of the water, as you walk or swim in it, almost cing the effect of entire non-resistance to your tions. periment with the Spout, warrants us in the confident anticipation of the best results from its further use. There are at present many invalids here, the place forming quite a hospital, and presenting a strong and striking contrast with the White Sulphur Springs, where there is such a constant flow of gaiety, and so constant a bustle is humming from morning till night. Many invalids have come down from Calwell's, and are now Boiling, Spouting and Sweating under Dr. Goode; and the Warm Spa being near, we have enough company to make the time pass away tolerably. Dr. Goode is an experienced physician, (I believe from Scotland originally,) and became possessed of this valuable property by purchase from the former owner, Peyton, who received it as a part of his wife's portion, without a very adequate notion of its true value. Many improvements are going on, new springs being discovered, and much promise being held out of future comforts and conveniences that are now desiderata. August 15. A lovely place is this stage of my wanderings among the Springs of Virginia. It did not look to me as if I could linger among its vallies and mountains with much satisfaction after leaving the White Sulphur, but it has grown wonderfully upon my good will within these few days. I have already given some idea of its situation, its arrangements for invalids, and the quali ties of its waters. I have continued to enjoy its delicious baths, and with no little advantage, and find them now as necessary to my daily enjoyment as I had previously done the White Sulphur waters. Well does the facetious Peregrine Prolix remark, that the scenery at Hot Springs "grows into your affec tions the deeper, the longer you remain." We came here for three days, and are regretting already that we may not extend our stay beyond a week. Since 1 came into Virginia, I have seen nothing in nature more lovely than the twilight of last evening, as I viewed it from the piazza of the old tavern here. It had been one of the finest days of the season. From morning till midnight the horizon, resting all around upon the ridge of the mountains that hem us in and form our little secluded world, spanned but one glorious arch of beauty. The sun, lifting up the thin cloud of silver and azure mist, that rested upon the mountain brow at its rising, came forth in splendor on his march across the trackless firmament, while the old trees that raised their proud heads by thousands over each other upon the hill sides, stood solemnly and silently still, not a breeze stirring their leafy tops amidst the quiet of the Sabbath noon; and gloriously too did he sink, the King of Day, to his rest beyond the distant verge of the western horizon. There is a spot here whence you may view the loveliest sunset and twilight landscape that it ever entered into the imagination of a Milton to describe, or a Claude to depict. Standing at sunset, a little northwesterly of the hotel on the hill, you look westward through a gap in the ridge of mountains I have so of ten alluded to as forming a beautiful feature of the scenery here, and following the direction of the road, the eye strikes at the remotest point of vision, the edge of another range of hills, behind which the sun has just set in undimmed glory. Above the lowest point of the horizon, a long line of glowing light extends the whole width of the space between the near mountains, that form your foreground, and thence mellowing upward in fainter and fainter degrees of intensity, it loses itself at length in the deep dun of the heavens above, amid which the stars are one by one shining forth, to make a night worthy of such a day. That one view is enough, for its present enjoyment, and for the recollections with which it has stored my memory, to repay me for my journey over the blue Alleghany. that he was actually caught in asking a black who frequents the piazza of his cabin, with his violin, every noon, to play "Zip Coon," and was much mortified to hear the conscientious Orpheus reply, "it is Sunday, Massa!" I have just returned from a ride on horseback to visit a spring, about three miles north of this place. The road was delightful, the day fine, my companions choice, and the horses good;-and to crown the pleasures of the morning, I tasted once more the real sulphur water, bubbling up from the earth, in all its undoubted purity. I did not drink it, it is true, from the octagonal basin, beneath the pillared pavilion, presided One learns to like his landlord, too, at Hot Springs, in an incredibly short time. Dr. Goode is a fine look-over by Hygeia, that graced the verdant square of my ing, intelligent, middle aged gentleman, who received his medical education at Edinburgh, and conceived the project of turning these springs to account from the experience that he himself had enjoyed of their efficacy. He has been their proprietor somewhat less than two years, and is in the midst of building and other grand improvements, the result of all whieh, it is a reasonable hope of his, will be to render these springs a very general resort for those who are suffering under hepatic and rheumatic affections. He is of mild manners, easy and winning address, gentlemanly and affable as an acquaintance, and instructive in his conversation upon general topics as well as upon those connected with his profession. good friend Calwell's domain,-but it was the real thing, and tasted as deliciously beneath the green trees of the primeval forest as it could have done in the costliest fabric of man's hands. The owner appears to possess no adequate notion of the value of the spring, leaving it open to all comers. Who knows, but that in time to come, a new "White Sulphur" will arise, and divide the palm with the present "lion of the mountains ?" Mr. Edmondson is the "Mr. Anderson" of Hot Springs, and meekly (in comparison) does he bear his honors. His right hand man is Mr. Smith,-a common name, it is true, but "what's in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet,"-though Smith," never knew I one, who for the concoction of a mint-julep, that pride of the Old Dominion, could come within hailing distance of him of the Hot Springs. We passed a cave or two of inauspicious aspect, but hating every thing Cimmerian, I did not turn my horse's head to explore them: a wagon load of negroes, old and young, male and female, some chained hand to hand, being on their way with their owners, for sale, probably to the south, and a whole family of whites, moving from Rockbridge to Ohio. We conversed with the latter in its various picturesque groups, and learned the story of their plans, and as we came back, we saw them halting to dine on the banks of a mountain stream, forming a picture worthy the pencil of a Salvator. CHAPTER VIII. Warm Springs again. The Colonel. The Baths. General hints. My last day at the Springs. Advantages of the tour. Advice to our critics. The Virginian. Ride over the moun. tains. The Blowing Cave. A hoax. Millborough. Alum Spring. The Hunter's bivouac. Lexington. Natural Bridge. Staunton. Weyer's cave. As queer an appendage of this place as any connected with it, is our barber. He rejoices in the euphonious name of Ben Garnet, and styles himself, Barber, Clothes Cleaner and Renovater. By courtesy, our coterie have dubbed him "Wormwood," from the resemblance he bears to the worthy of that name who figures Warm Springs, August 20, 1835. in the "Lottery Ticket" so facetiously: particularly in Here I am back again at the comfortable quarters of his gait, that is most singularly limping, as he hops my good old friend, Colonel Fry,-who received me about to shave beards and renovate unmentionables. with his accustomed cordiality and hospitable welWormwood owes his limp (so gossip tells) to a wound come. I find his cabins and chambers almost comreceived en cuerpo, as he was retreating from an un-pletely pre-occupied-for the travellers in Virginia from successful attempt to raise a subject for the dissecting the north, generally take his springs in their hometable of the medical students at Charlottesville, where ward route,-but still by a little manoeuvering, I was he resided, lang syne: but whether this be a true or enabled to bestow myself quite cosily in a suit of cabin gossiping story, I know not: he says he came by his apartments, much to my satisfaction. lameness by means of a downright honest rheumatic fever. Any how, (as Virginians say,) Wormwood is an oddity in his way, and it is worth a day's stay at Hot Springs to develope the fellow. We are within five miles of the Warm Springs, and on Saturday, I rode over and found the good Colonel as happy as a king, in the midst of a house full of visiters. Some of these were "old familiar faces," and recalled White Sulphur associations most delightfully. We were to have engaged rooms there, but the Colonel told us that "he never does them things;" giving all a fair chance, and no monopolizing! What a lesson for Master Anderson, thought I. Yesterday was a dies non to all the intents and purposes of a spring life, and so entirely out of reckoning was a neighbor of mine, as to the days of the week, I believe I was clear enough, for all useful purposes, as to the topographicalities of Warm Springs, upon my first visit, and can add but little to the useful or amusing accounts already attempted, of this part of my tour. I meet many of my White Sulphur acquaintance here, and have every prospect of a delightful sojourn for a few days. The baths, the luxury of which I have already endeavored to describe, are still attracting hosts of visiters, and they tell me that they find it difficult to break away from the fascinations of the place. Gaiety, too, is as rife here as at White Sulphur Springs, proportionally speaking. The dancing hall is nightly opened, and one fancies himself at Calwell's, under the management of Colonel Pace more. Such a contrast as the whole affords to t.. D pled condition of things at Hot Springs, (which an old | stage, and take the rail-road. If so disposed, he may inmate calls the "Hospital of Incurables,") makes it additionally attractive, just now, and thus you see my leave-taking of this region is likely to take place under most favorable circumstances. My ride from the Hot Springs hither was unincidental, and was taken upon a gloomy, lowering afternoon, and of course, the sight of the well-filled colonnaded piazza was cheering indeed. Some people had just come from the upper springs, who represented the falling off there to be rapid and constant. This of course increased my self-felicitation upon having come away so opportunely. Who does not hate leave-takings, among pleasant acquaintances? go twice each week to Lexington, by the way of Callaghan's, (above Hot Springs,) and thence may go to the Natural Bridge, (being thirty-five miles hence,) and taking Staunton in his way, may return as before directed. This will furnish a very agreeable, varied, instructive and health-giving season; and if the traveller be not the better for it, it will be more his own fault than that of the roads, the inns, the people, the fare, or the face of nature, on the entire route. One thing has been very remarkable during my whole tour to the springs. The weather has been uninterruptedly fine throughout. Every one remarks that the present season has been marked no less for its Yes! the season is over, or nearly so. The invalids unusually bright, clear and delightful skies, than for are wrapping up and turning their faces homeward, its wonderful increase of travellers in this region since the votary of Fashion is sighing a last farewell to the the last. It is very certain that of late much more noscenes that have been so delightful to him,—and every tice has been publicly taken of the tour, than has ever thing appears to be verging towards the end of the before been done in the country, and there is every reaball. I saw to-day the withered foliage of a maple, so-son to believe, that the result will be a prodigious inlitary and alone, in the midst of the forest, and its bril- | liant hue, like the hectic of the consumptive, warned me that it was time to depart also. I shall linger but one day yet, and then cross into another county of delightful Virginia, enjoying new sights and curiosi-country south of 'Mason and Dixon's line,' is to be suties,-hunting over yet unassayed ground. August 22. This is my last day among the Springs of Virginia. My visit to them, with its varied incidents, has been described to my patient and long suffering readers in a series of letters that I hope have had the effect to render these springs an object of interest in their eyes, and to induce some of them to turn their faces hitherward, whenever a journey of health or pleasure is to be projected. Should such an effect result from the publication of my notes, I certainly shall not have written in vain. crease of travel here during another season. The opportunity that a journey to the springs of Virginia affords the traveller from the north to form an acquaintance with the people of the various parts of the peradded to the advantages already enumerated as attending such a tour. It is incredible to the inexperienced in this matter, how great a deduction of that prejudice which is based upon no other ground than a few merely sectional differences of opinion on local and peculiar points, is effected by the contact and collision that such a journey produces. And it is doubly advantageous, inasmuch as this action upon prejudice is reciprocal; the southerner meets his brother of the north, and forms an intimacy with and an attachment to him, that results necessarily in the production of the best feelings on both sides. is a gentlemanly manner pervading the people I have met in this state that is entirely irrespective of rank, class or condition; and indeed I have seen it more strikingly developed, oftentimes, in those from whose appearance I was led to expect it least, than from others, to whom I looked for it as a matter of course. In no place I have ever been, have I seen so much occasion for a constant attention to the duty of acknowledging and reciprocating politeness, kindness, and attention, as in the mountain region of Western Virginia, during a month's "Trip to the Springs.' The character of the Virginian is peculiar, and at From what has been so rapidly sketched, it may be first view less pleasing than upon a cultivated acquaindeduced that the better route for a northern traveller to tance. He is proud, and high toned in his feelings; take to the Virginia Springs, would be to start about and in nothing does this characteristic show itself the middle of July on the tour, taking the Richmond more plainly than in the exercise of his most distinsteamboat at Baltimore, and the stage-coach at Rich-guishing trait,-I mean his hospitality. Of nothing is mond, and so direct to the Warm, Hot, and White he more proud than that he is most hospitable. There Sulphur Springs. If he be dyspeptic, he will content himself with a few baths at Warm, look in upon Dr. Goode at Hot, and tarry a fortnight at White Sulphur. Should the vice-like grasp of that "friend that sticketh closer than a brother," as the rheumatism has been aptly described, clinch him in its rude embrace, his place of sojourn must be in the Thermal valley, alternating between Hot and Warm, as Drs. Goode and Strother shall advise: doubtless the greater portion of his time should be devoted to the baths of the spout and the boiler. The consumptive must avoid all these springs, the Red and Gray Sulphur offering the only inducements to such patients to visit this region. If, however, none of these disorders and diseases shall drive the visiter hitherward, but his malady be ennui, or the propulsive power that moves him towards Spa be only the behest of fashion and a love of pleasure, he will find the White Sulphur his place the season round, Salt Sulphur occasionally, and this hospitable abode of Colonel Fry, towards the close of July. Returning, he has "the world before him, where to choose." He may return the way he came,-or may go back to Staunton, and thence diverge to Fredericksburg, and so go to Baltimore or Washington by August 28. At Warm Springs, I very gladly accepted a proposition from a friend to join him and one other companion in chartering a coach to Staunton, by the way of Lexington and the Natural Bridge. Having packed up, we took leave of the lingerers at the Colonel's, jumped into our two-horse vehicle, (denominated by courtesy a coach,) and were soon on our way over the Rock Mountain that overhangs the valley of the springs. It was early in the day, and we were to stop after the first thirteen miles from our starting place. A most delicious air rendered the heat of the sun, shining down upon us unclouded and bright, quite | tolerable, exposed as we were to his rays, determined to enjoy the splendid scenery that surrounded us on every hand. We soon diverged from the main road, and struck off south-westerly towards Millboro', where is a sulphur spring, and where we were to breakfast. On our way we got out to see the wonderful "Blowing Cave," mentioned by Jefferson, in his "Notes," as prostrating the grass for rods before it, and celebrated in all the guide books and travellers' long yarns from Dan to Beersheba. But it had done blowing! So much for cave hunting! Words are inadequate to convey the emotions with which one approaches, gazes upon, and admires this most magnificent display of that omnipotent power that called the earth and all it contains into being. One must go and stand upon the rock on the north of the ravine, and look down upon the bed of the stream three hundred feet below, and gaze with awe-struck admiration upon the immense sweep of the single arch thrown over this wide and growing gulf, below which and over and upon which trees are growing in masses, and which sustains a solid block of everlasting rock, fifty feet thick, upon which a common travelled road is run,-and then by a circuitous path he must descend below the stupendous arch, and gaze upward, and thus form an idea of its vastness, and the many wonders that its existence, its formation, and its regular mathematical proportions excite in the mind of the contemplative observer, ere he can conceive of what I should in vain attempt adequately to describe. Arrived at Millboro', a little village where there is a mill, a hatter's shop, (there located "because furs are so cheap," as the master of the ten foot establishment told me,) a tavern, and a real White Sulphur Spring. The mill has done grinding, the tavern is beautifully situated, and afforded a capital breakfast, the hatter was a yankee, (of course,) and the spring was quite respectable. After these discoveries, we pushed south- On the rocks and trees forming this magnificent cuerly into Rockbridge county, went up hill and down riosity, some visiters, desirous of fame, have recorded hill, along vallies, over rocky roads, and crossed the their names, many modestly, and some ostentatiously. same creek six and twenty times, all counted. There For our parts, we contented ourselves with bearing was no tavern on the route from Millboro' to Lexing-away a hawthorn stick and a cypress bough as our meton, which we were to reach that night, and our din-morials of a visit so full of impressive associations. ner was to be merged in supper. The boys, the women, and the men on the road were too busy to give us a cup of cold water to drink, and we were obliged to subsist on the apples we could knock from the trees by the way-side. In the course of the afternoon, having ridden through a succession of fine scenery, of the same character as that already described to you in my letters, we came to the foot of a hill, to the abrupt and densely wooded summit of which we ascended, to behold a most striking and singular sight. On the other side of this hill, which descended precipitously into a deep and rocky ravine, an hundred feet below where we stood, was a little settlement or encampment of deer-hunters, who come annually to this secluded and wild spot, to follow their game, bringing with them their families, and remaining during the whole season. The place selected is famous as the site of an alum spring of great power, to which people resort to accomplish cures for those diseases that are benefitted by an application of that mineral. It was a rude, rough, and novel scene, a parallel to which I do not think can be found in our country. I am told that this place is not renowned for its strict exemplariness in matters of morals and civil good order; these hunters being a kind of outlawed race, with few or no sympathies in common with the rest of the world around them. We reached Lexington, a place of eight or nine hundred inhabitants, that night, thirty-five miles from Warm Springs, after a fatigueing ride. There are an arsenal, with thirty or forty thousand stands of arms, and a garrison of forty soldiers; Washington College, which was closed, it being vacation time; a good court-house and gaol, churches, and many fine dwelling houses. It stands in the midst of a delightfully cultivated valley among the mountains, and is a place of no little consideration. We made a very comfortable inn our head-quarters,—and having passed a good night, we were bright and early on our way to the crowning curiosity of our tour, the Natural Bridge of Virginia. We reached it at noon, after a ride of about sixteen miles. A public house stands near it, where we left our carriage, and proceeded to view this stupendous wonder at our leisure. The bridge is private property; it did belong to the estate of Jefferson, and has been sold to its present owner, within three years, for fifteen hundred dollars, with about sixty acres of land. No doubt the purchaser is now reaping a rich harvest for his bargain. Leaving Lexington and Rockbridge county, we came, on the route of our return, to the little town of Staunton, on the main post-road to Richmond, where accident threw in our way an opportunity, (which, upon reflection, I think I should much regret to have lost,) to visit "Weyer's Cave," the most celebrated of all the limestone excavations which have been discovered in Western Virginia. "Madison's Cave," so celebrated in Jefferson's "Notes," is very near it, but since its discovery, has ceased wholly to attract the popular curiosity: and Weyer's is admitted by all visiters to be the grand wonder of this interesting tour. Being detained a day at Staunton, by some disappointment as to seats, our little party of three, determined to spend it at the Cave. Our curiosity to do so was excited by the landlord's exhibiting to us some beautiful specimens of spar, crystal, and stalactite, that had been brought thence, and forgetting our horror of being taken in by another "Cave," so naturally produced by our disappointment at "Windy Cave," so called, we took a convenient conveyance and rode out seventeen miles, to the abode of Mr. Morley, who has the care and the exhibition of this prodigious cavern. Having provided us with lights, arranged so as to throw the glare forward without dazzling the eye, we went about a quarter of a mile from the landlord's house, and ascending a hill, soon came to a wooden entrance upon the rocky side of a precipice, and stood in the ante-room of the cave. While standing there, our guide informed us that the place had been discovered twenty-nine years, and that its discovery was the result of accident, a hunter being on a search after some lost game, which he tracked to the mouth of this cave. His name was Weyer, and hence the name. through a succession of rudely divided apartments, formed by heavy and massive convulsions of the rocks on which the everlasting hill, hundreds of feet over our heads, was resting, each distinguished by some appel We went But I have not the time now, which it would require even to recapitulate, much less to describe the vari interesting cave. I shall only add, therefore, that the traveller in Virginia should never consider his plans for a tour through that most wonderful state complete, within many a degree, until he has placed prominently among them, "two whole days to be spent in explor lation that had been given it by the inquiring and intelligent visiter, from some resemblance which its entire form, or the concretions within it bore to some particuous attractions and fascinating wonders of this most lar object. These apartments are in number no less than thirty-six, and I believe a few more, cach containing stalactitic and stalagmitic formations, produced by the constant dropping of the limestone in a soluble state from the roof of the cave. The stalactite is formed by the drops from the ceiling or sides, in a hanging posi-ing Weyer's Cave." tion, like icicles from a wall, or sheets of ice upon a water The stalagmite is the formation of a concretion upward from the ground, upon which, drop by drop, the solvent falls from above. course. The wildest vagaries of romantic and poetical fancy, the most visionary conceptions of the freest rover in the realms of imagination, can never match the beauties and glories of this most wondrous of all the works of nature. There is not one feature of this fairy palace, be it ever so minute, or ever so grand in its proportions, that art can imitate with any thing like a shadow of the reality. The eye wanders amid a boundless variety of charming objects, and as it roves around these massive halls, the architecture of nature during the lapse of ages, the heart of the gazer is struck with awe at the stupendous manifestations of God's omnipotence the scene discloses at every step. Where all is so beautiful, grand, magnificent, sublime, to particularize within the compass of a single letter were presumption. All parts of the great whole were full of interest, and to the admiration of each alike did we devote ourselves as we passed them. Here, a splendid ceiling, overarching an apartment of great extent, was hanging thick with stalactites of every shape and size and tint, the single drop of lime water pendent upon the point of each, and with the crystals that had here and there formed upon them, glistening in the torch-light like masses of diamonds. Next, the attention is directed to enormous hangings of the same formations, but in broad folds resembling the richest drapery; every sheet or volume of which, a light being placed behind it, would seem to be hung with a broad border, and a regular hem. Again, stalagmites would here and there arise like statues or pedestals, imitations of antique marbles, requiring but little aid of the fancy to assimilate them to the well known chefs-d'œuvre of the art. Then, a magnificent hall, level, regular, lofty and extensive, would stretch out before the wondering gaze, and in its centre a statue would appear, the guardian genius of the place. The hall would be adorned with hangings of the broad and beautiful formations already described, and its ceiling sparkling with innumerable stalactites, spar and crystals. Anon, what seemed a mighty waterfall, stayed by the hand of Omnipotence in its descent, would stand, in motionless magnificence, fall after fall, volume after volume, lying still, clear, pure, cold and bright, one over the other, upon a perpendicular descent of an hundred and fifty feet,-s -some of the stalactitical concretions were so massive as to separate apartments from each other, and in one of these, the walls thus formed were beautifully transparent. A thin partition of this kind upon being struck gave out a deep tone, like the Chinese gong, and another had all the resonance of a fine bass drumn,while, in the same room, a succession of irregularly shaped columns of the stone, upon being hit rapidly with a small cane, produced a series of notes, not unlike those of the Pandean pipes, or of the musical glasses. EXPOSTULATION. It is not, dearest, that thy words I have no lute-string like the chords The music of thy voice. But, dearest, when 'neath yonder arch I feel them on their gentlest march, And when the storm is high; I may not share thy wo. The streamlets flashing to the sun, When floods their channels fill. I may not share thy wo. Oh! let my love divide thy cup! My joy shall meet thy smile, The sunbeams to beguile! Of joy, might I but know Life's brightest is a glimmering ray, And clouds will intervene; To make our graces green. That channels for thy wo? Yet I can weep-and patience take An answer to my suit. When joys within thee glow; B. W. H |