And a mountain-top has always an assurance of safety stamped upon it.

There we could indulge our admiration for the beautiful; there we could snatch an hour of fearless and unbroken sleep.
But elements of danger began to lower over our loved haunts.

The grouse season had just set in, and occasionally the report of a musket broke our reverie, or startled our deepest sleep.

Yet, even from this cup of bitterness did we derive some sparkles of happiness.

We could easily avoid the sportsman's eye; and when we wanted anything from the lower regions, the vicinity of the mountains, and the business of the fowler, accounted for our presence and our wants, and readily gained us a supply.