The Stonecutter of St. Point; A Village Tale (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1851. Excerpt: ... n. In the midst of this scene, more fascinating to Claude even than it was to me, since it was the scene of his childhood and of all his life, and thus adorned with all his impressions and his memories, the stonecutter seemed absorbed in the contemplation of the objects that surrounded him. He was as motionless as a petrefaction, and seemed as deeply rooted in the earth as the trunk of the tree against which he leaned. I was careful not to disturb him by any untimely noise. I was curious to see the man, living, and to hear him breathe, alone as it were before God. He was buried in thought and adoration, holding holy communion with God, as at all times; but he did not suspect that a stranger's eye and ear were interposing between him and Heaven. III. With an abstracted air he was tracing lines upon the sand with a branch of hazel-tree, yet full of leaves at the end, which he held in his hand. With his feet he pushed grains of sand or bits of gravel into the stream, appearing to listen with a certain charm to the light plaintive sound emitted by their fall: he called by name sometimes one goat, and sometimes another; he whistled to his dog; he watched the fleeting sunbeams on the water; he leaned upon his elbows alternately; he opened and shut his heavy eyelids, as if to imprison or dismiss his thoughts. There were long intervals, during which his breath was no more heard than if he had been dead. Then deep-drawn respirations followed, as if he had wished to pour out all his life in a sigh. You could see there were at once repose and emotion in his soul; that it was like the sea which disturbs its solemn silence by its majestic undulations. The spirit of enthusiasm evidently weighed upon his heart like the spirit of God, the invisible father, upon His ocean...