'Crombie came with me to Cedarton, engaged two light, serviceable wagons
to convey us and my effects, and then drove out here with me to help me
get settled. We reached Bald Knob just as the sun was setting yesterday
afternoon. The drive out from town was beautiful. Neither talked much on
the trip. I couldn't, and 'Crombie seemed to be thinking. The main
highway, which we traveled for a number of miles, was made of gravel,
brought from a considerable stream which, I learn, runs somewhere
nearabout. When we left the road, our way became quite rough. It was
merely a succession of knob paths, which had been broadened enough for
the passage of four-wheeled vehicles. As we went deeper and deeper into
the wood, the scenery became wilder and grander. We saw vast ravines,
where the earth shore straight down for many feet; tortuous channels
where the fierce rains had plowed a passage to lower ground; trees of
all description growing everywhere, while shrubs, creepers and vines
interlaced and fought silently for supremacy. Once we passed for nearly
half a mile along a broad, shallow stream with a slate bed, bordered on
one side by a gigantic, leaden, serrated slate cliff whereon some
patches of early moss gleamed greenly bright, fed by the moisture which
filtered through the overlapping strata. This cliff was somber; it was
almost like a shadow cast upon us. But when we had passed it the
sunshine came sweeping gloriously through a gap in the hills, and I felt
my spirit leap up gratefully to meet it.
We could see Bald Knob for miles before we reached it, and as we drove
along, each smoking, neither talking, I found that my eyes wandered time
and again to the bare, conical cap toward which we were creeping. I was
wondering with all the soul of me if I could meet the test, now that it
stared me in the face. It was one thing to sit in 'Crombie's leather
chair and decide comfortably upon this course, and another thing to see
myself approaching a hut in the midst of a primeval forest--and to think
that I was going to live alone there for a twelve-month! I know my face
would not have made a good model for a picture of Hope, as the two
wagons drew up in the ravine which partially circled the enormous hill
whereon 'Crombie had said a shack had at one time stood. At length we
found a sort of road--it was more an opening through the dense
undergrowth than anything else--and by dint of much urging from the
drivers, and frequent rests, we came at last to a little plateau,
perhaps a quarter of an acre in extent, not quite half way up the knob.
On the farther side of the plateau was a small building, resting at the
base of a sheer wall of stone and earth.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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