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62                   Juvenile Letters

Fill'd with the praise of Him who gives the light, 
And draws the sable curtains of the night.

Let placid slumbers sooth each weary mind, 
At morn to wake more heavenly, more refin'd;
So shall the labours of the day begin,
More pure, more guarded from the snares of sin.

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                    LETTER XXIII.
From Master RICHARD RAMBLER to Master JOHN 
                    JOURNALIST.
                                
[[right margin]]Mount Washington

DEAR JACK,
         WHERE do'you think I am now?
Why, not so far off but I believe I could see you with a good telescope, though the distance is seventy miles. I am on the very pinnacle of that high mountain, which so much excited your admiration, on your journey from New-Haven to Albany. In passing by it, you would little suspect, what may be found on its top.   In the first place, here are fifty families, scattered along through an extent of seven or eight miles or more. Some of these mountaineers 

[[center margin]] Juvenile Letters.
[[right margin]] 63

are very poor, supporting themselves in a great measure by gathering hurtle-berries, which grow in abundance on the summits, and selling them to the inhabitants below. Here, it may properly be said, are "mountains piled on mountains;" the summits rising one above another in a variety of shapes. These, of course, form vallies between; and in these vallies the inhabitants live. I cannot describe to you the grandeur of this boundless prospect. On the west, the Catskill mountains rear their majestic heads. On the north, the mountains of Vermont seem to prop the skies.  The summit where I now stand is often enveloped in clouds. If you have read Brydone's description of Mount Etna in Sicily, you may form a better idea of this, than my pen is capable of giving you. 
  Upon this mountain are also four or five ponds; some of which are more than a mile over, and well supplied with fish. Yesterday I caught a trout in one of them which weighed three pounds.
  The road up the mountain is very steep and 
[[right margin]]crooked.

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