Nelly's Silver Mine: A Story of Colorado LifeJackson, Helen Hunt
History
Nelly's Silver Mine: A Story of Colorado Life
Jackson, Helen Hunt
Colorado -- History -- To 1876 -- Juvenile fiction
"Laughing at your fierce desire to start off for the Himalayas,
Rob," he said.
"I don't care," said Rob: "I'm going there some day. You just read
the 'Cliff Climbers,' and see if you don't think so too. I'll take
you and mamma and Nell there when I'm a man and have money enough;
see if I don't."
"Well, well, Rob, we'll go when that time comes, if we're not too
old when you're rich enough to pay all that the journey costs. I've
always thought I should like to go round the world," said Mr. March;
"but now we'll look at the Colorado pictures."
Then they sat down, Mr. and Mrs. March on the lounge in front of the
fire, Nelly in her father's lap, and Rob perched up on the back of
the lounge behind his mother, so that he could look over her
shoulder.
The first picture Mr. March took out of the envelope was one which
looked like the picture of two gigantic legs and feet wrong side up.
"Oh, what big feet!" exclaimed Rob. "Do giants live in Colorado?"
Mr. March turned the picture the other side up.
"They are rocks, Rob," he said, "not feet; but they do look like
feet, that's a fact. These are some of the rocks in a place called
Monument Park, because it is so full of these queer rocks. Here are
some more of them: they are of very strange shapes. Here are some
that look like women walking with big hoop-skirts on, and some like
posts with round caps on their heads; and here is a picture of a
place where so many of these rocks are scattered among the trees,
that they look like people walking about. Here is one group which
has been called the 'Quaker Wedding.'"
"Oh, let me see that! let me see that!" exclaimed Nelly. "How queer
to call rocks Quakers!"
"I don't see that they look very much like men and women, after
all," added she as she studied the picture; "but they don't look
like any rocks I ever saw. I think I should be afraid of them. They
look alive."
"Pooh!" said Rob, "I shouldn't be. Rocks can't stir. Show us some
more, papa."
The next pictures were of beautiful waterfalls: there were three of
them,--one of seven falls, one above the other, and one of a
beautiful fall, very narrow, hemmed in between rocks, with tall
pine-trees growing about it. The next was of a high mountain with
snow half way down its sides, and a great many lower mountains all
around it. This was called Pike's Peak.
"Oh, papa!" said Nelly, "could we live where we could see that
mountain all the time?"
"Perhaps so, Nell," answered her father, smiling at her eagerness:
"would you like to?"
Nelly was looking at the picture intently, and did not reply for a
moment. Then she said:--
"Papa, I think it would keep us good all the time to look at that
mountain."
"Why, Nell," said her mother, "I didn't know you cared so much for
mountains. You never said so."
"I never saw a real mountain before," said Nelly. "This isn't a bit
like Mount Saycross."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account