thousands of banished fountains under that agitated and impatient
surface. Both ends of the island are as much alike as its sides are
dissimilar. They taper off almost to a distinct bladepoint of rock,
in which a mere doll's flagstaff of a pine-tree grows; then comes a
small detached rock, with a small evergreen on it, then a still
smaller rock, with a tuft of grass, then a line of partially
submerged stones, and so out to the deep yet ever-bubbling water.
This island might seem, just the size for two, and there were two on
it on a certain July morning at five o'clock. One of these was a lady
who lay at full length and fast asleep upon a most unique couch.
These northern islands are in many places completely covered with a
variety of yellowish-green moss, varying from a couple of inches to
a foot and a half in thickness; and yielding to the pressure of the
foot or the body as comfortably as a feather bed, if not more so,
being elastic in nature. A large square of this had been cut up from
some other part of the island and placed on the already moss-grown
and cushioned ground, serving as a mattress, while two smaller
pieces served as pillows. A sumac tree at the head of the
improvised couch gave the necessary shade to the face of the sleeper,
while a wild grapevine, after having run over and encircled with its
moist green every stone and stem on the island, fulfilled its
longing at length in a tumultuous possession of the sumac, making a
massive yet aerial patched green curtain or canopy to the fantastic
bed, and ending seemingly in two tiny transparent spirals curling up
to the sky.
If there were a fault in the structure it was that it was too clever,
too well thought out, too rectangular, too much in fact like a bed.
But it told certainly of a skillful pair of hands and of a beautiful
mind and the union of art with nature perfectly suited the charms--
contradictory yet consistent--of the occupant. For being anything
but a beautiful woman she was still far from a plain one, which
though no original mode of putting it does convey the actual
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