At last, after all these years of struggle and failure, one was really living! The road, slowly ascending the long wooded slope, wound its way through the forest until it brought me to the mountain path which climbs, with many a halt and pause, to the very summit.

Dense foliage overshadows it, a little thinner now that the hand of autumn has begun to disrobe the trees.

Great rocks often lie in the course of the path and send it in a narrow curve around them.

Sometimes one comes upon a bold ascent up the face of a projecting cliff; sometimes one plunges into the very heart of the shadows as they gather over the rocky channel of the brook that later will run foaming down to the valley.

Step by step one widens his horizon, although it is only at intervals that he is able to note his progress upward.