There are many delightful resting-places upon the road, soon after leaving Rip's cabin, as we toil wearily up the mountain, where the eye takes in a magnificent panorama of hill and valley, forest and river, hamlet and village, and thousands of broad acres where herds graze and the farmer gathers his crops, -- much of it dimly refined because of distance -- a beautifully coloured map rather than a picture. These delight the eye and quicken the pulse, as has been remarked ; but there is one place

THE HUDSON.

upon that road where the ascending weary ones enjoy more exquisite pleasure for a moment than at any other point in all that mountain region. It is at a turn in the road where the Mountain House stands sudddnly before and above the traveller, revealed in perfect distinctness -- column, capital, window, rock, people -- all apparently only a few rods distant. There, too, the ]-oad is level, and the traveller rejoices in the assurance that the toilsome journey is at an cu<l ; when, suddenly, he finds himself, like the young pilgrim in Cole's " Yoyagc of Life," disappointed in his

MOUNTAIN HOUSE, FBOM THE KOAD,

course. The road that seemed to be leading directly to that beautiful mansion, upon the crag just above him, turns away, like the stream that appeared to be taking the ambitious young voyager directly to the shadowy temple of Fame in the clouds ; and many a weary step must be taken, over a crooked, hilly road, before the traveller can reach the object of his journey.