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1Author:  Sedgwick Catharine Maria 1789-1867Requires cookie*
 Title:  Redwood  
 Published:  1997 
 Subjects:  University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 
 Description: On the last day of June, in the year —, a small vessel, which traversed weekly the waters of Lake Champlain, was seen slowly entering one of the most beautiful bays of that most beautiful lake. A travelling carriage with handsome equipments, a coachman in livery and an outrider, were drawn up on the shore, awaiting the approach of the vessel. On the deck stood a group of travellers for whom the equipage was destined: a beautiful young woman, and her attendant, a female slave, were surveying it with pleased and equal eagerness, while the father of the young lady seemed quite absorbed in the contemplation of a scene which poetry and painting have marked for their own. Not a breeze stirred the waters; their mirror surface was quite unbroken, save where the little vessel traced its dimpled pathway. A cluster of islands lay in beautiful fraternity opposite the harbour, covered with a rich growth of wood, and looking young, and fresh, and bright, as if they had just sprung from the element on which they seemed to repose. The western shore presented every variety of form; wooded headlands jutting boldly into the lake, and richly cultivated grounds sloping gently to its margin. As the traveller's delighted eye explored still farther, it B 2 rested on the mountains that rise in four successive chains, one above the other, the last in the far distance dimly defining and bounding the horizon. A cloud at this moment veiled the face of the sun, and its rich beams streamed aslant upon the mountain tops, and poured showers of gold and purple light into the deep recesses of the valleys. Mr. Redwood, a true admirer of nature's lovely forms, turned his unsated gaze to the village they were approaching, which was indicated by a neat church spire that peered over the hill, on the height and declivities of which were planted several new and neat habitations. “Oh Caroline, my child,” exclaimed the father, “was there ever any thing more beautiful!” “Some months have elapsed, dear Alsop, since we parted, and parted with a truly juvenile promise to keep up an unremitting epistolary intercourse. And this I believe is the first essay made by either of us; a fair illustration of the common proportion which performance bears to such promises. You, no doubt, have been roving from pleasure to pleasure, with an untiring impulse, and your appetite, like the horse-leech, has still cried, `give, give.' If one of your vagrant thoughts has strayed after me, you have doubtless fancied me immured in my study, pursuing my free inquiries, abandoning the fallen systems of vulgar invention, and soaring far over the misty atmosphere of imposture and credulity. Or, perhaps, you deem that I have adopted your sapient advice, have returned to my home a dutiful child, gracefully worn the chains of filial obedience, made my best bow to papa, and with a, `just as you please, Sir,' fallen, secundum artem, desperately in love with my beautiful, and beautifully rich cousin; have rather taken than asked her willing hand, and thus opened for myself the path of ambition, or the golden gates that lead to the regions of pleasure, and which none but fortune's hand can open, But, alas! the most reasonable hopes are disappointed by our fantastic destiny. We are the sport of chance; and as we confess no other deity, you are bound not to deride any of the whimsical dilemmas into which his votaries are led. Alsop, you have often commended the boldness of my mind, while you laughed at a certain involuntary homage I paid to the beautiful pictures of goodness, which some dreaming enthusiasts have presented to us, or to the moral beauty which among all the varieties of accidental combination, is sometimes exhibited in real life. “I am grateful for your interest, and convinced by your arguments that I ought no longer to doze away my brief existence in this retirement. I have obtained my father's consent to the arrangement you propose; and what is still more indispensable, an ample supply in consideration of a promise I have given to him, that I will solicit the hand of my cousin immediately after my return.
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