GODEY'S LADY'S BOOK
Philadelphia, November 1850

THE "OLD MAN OF THE MOUNTAIN" AT FRANCONIA.

HIGH up the side of this bold mount, lone and serene, In his own airy home, a stern recluse is seen, Who o'er this calm domain doth vigilantly keep His dark unwav'ring eye; yet loseth ne'er his sleep. A time-worn face he shows to all who pass this vale, Unmoved by summer heat or blasting wint'ry hail.

"Say, vernerable sire, was this thy cradled place? And wilt thou kindly tell of thy ancestral race? Did love smile on thy birth and watch thy growing

years,

Till manhood's filial love repaid maternal tears? Did parent's voice command this lovely place to watch? And hast thine eye drunk in the beauties round this

Notch?"

"Since earliest time, I never knew parental care, Or of created love received the smallest share; From age to age my dark untiring eye I've cast O'er cascade flumes, the whirling pool, and tow'ring

mast;

Ere there had found their spring, or this rose out the

earth,

The sculpturing Hand Divine gave me this rocky birth. E'en when the morning stars their advent anthem sung, In tune to golden harps by angels sweetly rung."

"How long will thy dark eye this glorious scene

survey?

When will thy watching cease - thy visage pass away?"

"While springs, brooks, pools, and lakes, flumes,

mountains, echoes raise

A harmony of song to their Creator's praise; Till Time shall o'er man's dreams his latest moments

count;

Till Love's bless'd radiant beams shall all life's woes

surmount;

The water's lose their place, these mountains crumbling

fall,

And Adam's sinning race hear Gabriel's clarion call."

"May wealth erect a mill within this calm abode? And engineering skill run here its iron road?"

"Whoe'er from city 'change - Minerva's modern

school-

Would plant an iron track, or drive the twisting mule, On my retired domain - know 'tis Rosina's seat- Come not within its shades with Plutus' searching

feet,

To mar with ruthless hands the sylvan glories here. Withhold thy Midas touch, and learn that Hand of

fear

Which filled the circling pool from its deep flowing

spring,

Taught the cool glassy lake an echoing voice to ring, Traced down the sweeping vale its laughing silver

streams,

And reared these lordly mounts to greet the earliest

beams

Of yon life-giving sun - fit emblem of His love, Who has for each true soul far brighter scenes above, And while o'er this domain in ecstasies you gaze, Dwell on that heavenly home, where endless glories

blaze."