Transcriber's Note:Transcriber's Note:
1. Page scan source: http://www.archive.org/details/throughnighttol00veregoog
"Ex fumo dare lucem cogitat."
Horace
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by
LEYPOLDT & HOLT,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States
for the Southern District of New York.
STEREOTYPED BY
DENNIS BRO'S & THORNE,
AUBURN N. Y.
The sun hung glaring red near the horizon. In the valleys of themountain ranges dark-blue shadows were gathering, while high on theforest-crowned tops the warm evening light was still aglow. The treeswere gorgeous in their gay autumn livery, but in this part of themountain dark forests of sombre evergreens covered the narrow ravinesup and down, and all the swelling heights.
On the turnpike which led in manifold windings towards the main ridgeof the mountains, and was lined on both sides with unbroken rows ofdwarf fruit-trees, an old-fashioned carriage was slowly making its way.It was one of those broad but clumsy vehicles, drawn by two raw-boned,broken-kneed horses, and carefully provided with a huge drag-chain,which are hired in the cities for a few days' excursion into themountains. The horses lagged, with drooping heads, heavily in theirharness, and labored painfully step by step up the hill, for the roadwas steep and the carriage heavy. The driver encouraged them from timeto time with a friendly Gee, bay! up, sorrel! as he walked slowly bytheir side, and the two gentlemen who had employed him for some dayshad gotten out at the foot of the mountain and were leisurely followingat some distance behind him.
They were a couple of young men, evidently belonging to the bestclasses of society, that is, to the middle classes, in whichintelligence and culture are nowadays almost exclusively found. Theywere both tall and showed the slight build and the elasticity belongingto their years. One, the smaller one, whose mouth and cheeks werenearly hid under a close, deep-black beard, would probably have beenthought the more interesting of the two, as his finely-cut features,full of intelligence, were sure to please the more careful observer,and yet he was neither as tall nor as handsome as his companion, who atonce attracted the eyes of all fair maidens and matrons in the townsand villages through which they had passed.
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