A Daughter of Maryland — page 27: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

ee ede: vi , : , toa, Le EP A Po RT ee : Pir. 7 , I As he igled ares mises a ee s - - 7 . oe ee ae > te e os j j % : r | ’ * ' x : Ca, a 12 A DAUGHTER OF MARYLAND. She must have had an extended search for her darky lover, or the settlement of ‘‘dat word’’ had required a long argument, for it was fully fifteen minutes later when she ran into the house and he rode away on the back of Black Gyp. In her anxiety to reach the home of Uncle Frost, Miss. Lancier did not give a second thought to her laggardly attendant, but dashed down the Sharpsburg turnpike at.. such furious speed as to call upon her surprised looks of all whom she met or passed on the way. But leaving the main highway about a mile below Sylvania and following the crossroad leading along the winding, lonely valley of Wind River, where the way was almost constantly over- hung on the one hand by frowning mountain ridges and on the other flanked by the deep, rocky bank of the stream, with a precipitous wall of granite rising beyond, now climbing steep ascents, anon descending dizzy declivities, she was obliged to often slacken Maze’s speed to a walk. Standing out in bold relief on the left hand at the entrance to this mountain defile were huge rocks piled one above another in such positions as to form upon a gigantic scale the almost perfect outlines of a human face, no part being wanted to make up the features of this rugged coun- tenance which had been named ‘‘ The Stone Sentinel,’’ and the passway at its base ‘‘ The Sentinel’s Gateway. ’’ Beyond this mute image that side of the ascent fixing the boundary of the defile was generally covered with a growth: of stunted pines, the dark eve green of their foliage giving a gloomy aspect to the scene. On the other hand, its deep flank splashed by the sparkling current of the river, which had at places undermined its adamantine side to an extent that large basins had been scooped out of the solid rock and filled with seething waters, rose a high, perpendicular barrier of granite, broken at intervals by deep fissures and caverns of unknown depth. Over this wrinkled visage, seamed and scarred by ages of passive resistance to sun and cComicboo cS (ee) nN