Outdoors at Idlewild Author:Nathaniel Parker Willis Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: LETTER XI. Plank Foot-bridge over the Ravine—IU Hidden Location—Value of Old-man Friendships—Friend S.—His Visit to the Bridge—His Remembrance of Washing... more »ton—Tobacco Juice on Trees to Prevent Horse-biting, 4c., 4c., Jutlf 14,1658. I Took, a jump, to-day, the full length of a quiet observation made to me by a venerable old man, and the startling effect upon my imagination reminded me how rarely we do this—how seldom we ure eager or ready for a thought that is presented to us, willing to fly where it leads the way, understand fully all it points to, and see it fairly home again with a responsive look or word before half forgetting it. Of such listening, it is true, every soul liable to be saved is not equally worthy, even in a republic ; but my friend's remark and its bearings (like much that he daily looks and says), are worth more than my best attention ; and I will venture therefore to weave this and what belongs to it, into my chronicle of everyday happenings. Over a part of the ravine of Idlewild hitherto almost wholly inaccessible—a winding chasm between two sheer precipices, tumultuously filled below with a succession of THE HIDDEN PATH. 79 foam-rapids—I had felled a couple of trees ; and, with bits of rough board, formed a passable bridge, to which, by dint of pick-axe-ing, I had ridged a pathway, aslant down the face of the rock. As no strolling foot would ever find the tangled way thither without a guide, I kept it for such visitors as I thought loved nature well enough to appreciate its covert wildness and beauty ; and, for the eight months past, this flying bridge has been my finger-twist of free-masonry—the secret of Idlewild, which I revealed to those on whom my heart turned no key. So enchanced was the beauty of this by the snows and swollen torr...« less