The stream, curving like a great snake, gleamed amid the
acres of green grass, its swift waters sparkling in the sun. Here and
there it would dip down between high banks, or disappear for a moment
behind a clump of willows, only to reappear in broader volume. Beyond,
seemingly at no distance at all, yet bordered by miles of turf and
desert, the patches of vivid green interspersed with the darker
colouring of spruce, and the outcropping of brown rocks, the towering
peaks of a great mountain-chain swept up into the clear blue of the
sky, black almost to their summits, which were dazzling with the white
of unmelted snow. Marvellous, awe-inspiring as the picture was in
itself alone, it was rendered even more wonderful when contrasted with
the ugly squalidness of the town below, its tents and shacks sprawling
across the flat, the sunlight revealing its dust and desolation.
The girl's first exclamation of delight died away as she observed these
works of man projected against this screen of nature's building; yet
her eyes dwelt lovingly for some time on the far-flung line of
mountains, before she finally released the green shade, and shut out
the scene.
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