John Andrews

“ For to myself I often say,
“My love will choose the summer hours.”
V.
But summer fades to autumn’s gold,
Yet still I watch and still I wait;
I think—“My love, she cometh late,
The days are short, the nights are cold.” ”

“ The first object the eye rests upon, or rather is fascinated by, in the very centre of the picture is the fall itself, before which are two enormous barriers of steep, jagged, black rocks, forming a natural gateway to the fall. Over these, centuries ago, the water must have come; gradually, little by little, year after year, the irresistible rushing water has worn away those iron rocks into their present form. All the lower part of the fall is completely hidden in rolling clouds of spray, which rise far above the top. ”

“ For the first three or four miles the road lay beside the bed of the river, which ran on our left, at times through avenues of overhanging birches, which formed a pleasant shade from the great heat of the morning sun. By the roadside the monkshood grows most plentifully—in fact, this poisonous plant is one of the commonest in Norway. After walking about an hour we began to ascend, and, crossing the bed of a torrent, had a most splendid view down the valley of the Gousta Fjeld. The summit of this mountain consists of a long ridge covered with eternal snow. ”

“ TO THE SWALLOW.
Swallow, cruel swallow! wherefore dost thou come
Glancing in the sunlight, by the gleaming river,
Year after year, unto thy northern home,
While youth and love are leaving us for ever? ”

“ IX.
And yet they change not; summer comes and goes,
⁠And o’er the Linden Trees the sunset lingers still,
Still lovers whisper in the leafy shade;
⁠Nature is changeless—man alone is fickle still! ”

“ And many friends have left me here,
⁠And many, many more, are dead,
V.
And well I mind a day like this,
⁠Now fifty long, long years ago,
I brought my wife this very way
⁠To see the early violets blow.
VI.
But she has gone these many years,
⁠ (’Twas such another April day) ,
Into the land beyond the sun,
⁠Where flowers of spring shall bloom for aye. ”

“ Why, when the evening comes and the winds are quiet and still,
When the sun is down in the west and his light is dying away,
Comes there a track of pale green light in the sky far over the hill,
When all the heaven is dark and the clouds grow heavy and gray? ”

“ Dead men tell no tales.—ha! ha!’ She laughed hideously; then she woke up with a start, and fell back exhausted. After a few minutes the other woman said, ‘Here’s the gentleman you wanted to see, Sarah, that you wanted to tell something to.’ Sarah Varley turned her eyes towards me, and said, faintly, ‘Quick, I’m dying!—lower, lower,’ pulling me convulsively by the arm. ”

“ At Handeck the Aar makes its celebrated fall; its beauty is much increased by the fall of the Handeck, which takes place exactly at the same spot,—“mingling its tributary waters midway with the more powerful column of the Aar.” ”

“ I remember very well, that I had sat all day in my dull lonely chambers, and my small boy, dignified with the name of clerk, had sat all day in his duller and lonelier room, when creak, creak, creak, came a footstep on the old stairs. ”

“ Wednesday, March 22nd.—Plaintiff’s case over—crowded court—Lady W. sat it out. I am afraid she hasn’t a ghost of a chance. By the way, she looked more like a ghost than a living being—the case was quite straightforward—I opened the pleadings—the Serjeant made a masterly speech—the will was then put in—Sarah Varley, the only one of the three attesting witnesses living (the deaths of the other two witnesses is a curious circumstance, but their deaths were proved in the regular way) , was called to prove the will ”

“ Seven, eight, and nine hundred feet have been stated as the height by different writers, and some have even fancied that the height might be ascertained from the pulsations which the water makes in its descent. ”

“ The defendants dispute the will, but do not, we believe, intend to call witnesses. Of the three attesting witnesses, two are dead (curiously soon!) , but the third, Sarah Varley, will prove testator’s signature, and that it was executed the day before the testator died. Such was the substance of my instructions. Turning to the “Landed Gentry,” I found “Woodlands, Sir Harry, of the Woodlands and Fairlawns, C—shire, baronet, high-sheriff, 17—.” Folding up my brief, I found on the back “Consultation at Serjeant Wasp’s chambers on Thursday next, at one.” ”