But the way to the turn is not long; and once round that corner, and
racing along the river side, there is enough to see, well worth the
seeing. And it was all new to Magnus. The wonderful rush of the mighty
river, rolling its blue waves in endless curls and undulations; the
stately Palisades, with their drapings of June green; the white-winged
craft on the water, and the white-winged gulls in the air; all made the
boy's heart leap. Here went a steamer, ploughing her crested furrows;
now and then the train stopped for breath at some station with a
strange name. It was all a wonderful new world.
With his face close to the window Magnus looked eagerly out; sending
his gaze as far up the river as the headlands and bends would let him;
and at last in the distance beyond the narrowing waters of Haverstraw
Bay, and above the nearer hillsides, rose lovely mountain-heads. Not
towering and stupendous, such as he might have seen many a time in the
Western States, but soft, rounded, exquisite; just high enough, in
fact, to claim the dignified name of mountains, as distinguished from
mere hills. What they were, and where they belonged, Magnus could not
tell. They rose up, and stretched out, and locked in, in an impassable
sort of way; as if they might be miles off from the river. He did not
know whether West Point was near them. And yet, by his time-table,
there was but one station more before he must leave the train.
Now the engine rushed inland for a bit, losing sight of the river, and
Magnus studied the time-table again, assuring himself for the twentieth
time of the precise hour and minute when he was expected to reach
Garrisons. Then as the train drew up at Peekskill, he gazed out at that
dingy combination which gathers round a railway station. The engine got
its quantum of water, darted on, and then--ah, what could be fairer!
Magnus almost shouted with delight as they swept around the curve, with
the full south view for a moment, past Anthony's Nose, and with the
Dunderberg across the stream.
"What are these mountains called?" he asked of a Peekskill passenger
who had taken the seat beside him.
"Highlands--Hudson Highlands," said the man. "You don't belong round
here, likely?"
"I never was here before."
"You've come to the right place, then. Aint purtier mountings nowhere.
Such a lot o' happenings, too. Now, right _here_,"--as the train rushed
through a deep rock cut,--"just about here, was where Benedict Arnold
sneaked off to find the _Vulture_. And earth nor water didn't nary one
on 'em open and swaller him up."
"Then this is Teller's Point!" cried Magnus.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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