The Sparrowgrass Papers, Or, Living in the Country (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. 1856 edition. Excerpt: ... gold, brown, and crimson of autumnal leaves. Look up No wonder it makes you dizzy to look up. What is that bird? Mrs. Sparrowgrass, that is an eagle It was a pleasant thing, after we had secured the boat by an iron grapnel, to pick our way over the sharp rocks; now holding by a lithe cedar, now swinging around a jutting crag by a pendulous, wild grape-vine, anon stepping from block to block, with a line river view in front and below; and then coming suddenly upon the little nook where lay the flat stone we were in quest of; and then came the great cloth-spreading, and opening of the basket And we took from the basket, first a box of matches and a bundle of choice segars of delicate flavor. Next two side bottles of claret. Then we lifted out carefully a white napkin, containing only one fowl, and that not fat. Then two pies, much the worse for the voyage. Then two more bottles of claret. Then another centre-piece--ham sandwiches. Then a bundle of knives and forks, a couple of corkscrews, a tiet of plates, six apples, and a half bottle of olives. Then twenty-seven hickory nuts, and a half dozen nut-crackers. And then came the cheese, and the manuscript. Oh, golden November sky, and tawny river bland distance and rugged foreground wild, crimson vines, green cedars, many-colored, deciduous foliage, grey precipices, and delicious claret What an afternoon that was, under the Palisades "Mr. Sumach," said I, after the pippins and cheese, " if you will cast your eyes up beyond the trees, above those upper trees, and follow the face of the precipice in a direct line for some four hundred feet perpendicularly, you will see a slight jutting out of rock, perhaps twenty feet below the top of the crags." Mr. Sumach replied, the sun...