“I saw the sun drop last evening--its magnified reflection, rather--into the larger Lake Asquam, like a ball of crimson flame. The sun itself went down, hot and red, into a band of warm mist that hung over the hills. The ‘Wood Giant’ stood above me audibly musing. His twilight thoughts were untranslatable, but perhaps the wood-thrushes understood, for they sent up their mystical chant from the thickets below, in deep harmony with the music of his boughs. “The higher summits have not unveiled themselves yet, not even Cardigan or Mount Israel. Steaming across the lake from Wolfboro’ three sunsets since, it seemed to me that there was a compensation in this invisibility of the loftier hills. Only Red Hill and the Ossipee Range were to be seen; and they loomed up in huge grandeur, asserting themselves to be, as they are, the dominant guardians of Winnipiseogee. It is seldom that the Beautiful Lake loses them from sight.” TO MRS. S. I. SPALDING. CENTRE HARBOR, N. H., October 7, 1855. ... I have had my “outing” at Bethlehem; I went there hardly able to sit up during the journey, but gained strength at once, and am well now. I stayed there more than four weeks, and enjoyed it much. Mr. Howells and family were at the next house, and I saw them several times. Bethlehem is a very public place. I found a good deal of calling and visiting going on. But the house life was delightful. I spent last week at Ossipee Park, the loveliest spot in New England, I think. I am here for a week or more, at the place where Mr. Whittier was in the summer. Mrs. Sturtevant is an old friend of mine, and her housekeeping leaves nothing to be desired. You would like the place and it is easily accessible,--only a mile back of Centre Harbor. Mr. Whittier’s poem, “The Wood Giant,” was written here. You can see the tree above others, ten miles across the lake, at Ossipee Park--it is down in the pasture, a little way from this house, looking towards sunset over the lake.... TO J. G. WHITTIER. HOTEL BYRON, BOSTON, April 23, 1886. MY DEAR FRIEND,--I have been in and about Boston for the past three weeks, and of late have been interested in this new study of Theosophy, which so many are looking into. I have wondered how you regard it.