The morn had ushered in a new year, when Tubal and his brother went
forth to worship upon the neighboring mountains, and offer up a
sacrifice in acknowledgment of mercies past, of mercies present, and of
mercies yet to come. From the sea a mist rolled inward, and covered all
the land, and covered the forest wide, and crept up the hill-sides, and
hung about their tops, and curled over, descending like a glory, to be
lost in the space beyond. Bathed in cloud, seeing their path dimly, they
walked hand in hand, loaded with gifts of the chase, and of the vine,
and pure water, and sweet-scented wood. Ariel found a new beauty in the
thick vapor which shut out the heavens, and so stilled the song of the
trees that, listening, he believed he could hear the very mist singing,
as it moved onward upon its errand of fruitfulness and health; but Tubal
saw power, and felt his strength grow within him, and, invigorated,
stood erect, and trod more proudly the earth which he claimed as his
own. As they ascended the higher grounds, and climbed the steeps which
led upward to the temple they had chosen, the cloud grew thinner, and
the light increased, and they halted, silent, and bowed their heads, and
pressed their lips to the mountain-side, and kissed God’s
foot-prints—there seen, clear and radiant, as they are now to be seen
impressed, eternal, upon the granite which, in the far North, lifts its
head a mark to the returning mariner, who—far out upon the ocean—hails
the beacon with all the joy of home. Then rising, they mounted quickly
to the summit, round, and fair with its own flood, and standing, gazed.
Gazed upon the cloud spread out beneath their feet, a vast expanse of
silver water, covering land and sea; gazed upon the hill-tops which rose
above the flood, as isles sleeping upon the bosom of a quiet lake; gazed
upon the heavens, serenely blue, over-arching all; and gazed upon the
sun, red and huge, struggling with the mist, till its rays, released,
flashed upon the isles, and lighted up the heavens, and so wrought that
the deep cloud, mastered by their heat, broke from its fastenings, and
rolled in masses, and, rifted, opened cavernous, and showed, first the
crowning tufts of the forest-trees, and then the lower boughs, and then
the plain, reeking with moisture, and then the sea, bright and dancing,
until the last wreath of feathery vapor ascending, vanished.