The Unknown Quantity : A Book of Romance and Some Half-Told Tales (Illustrated) Henry Van Dyke Author

• The book is an edited and illustrated version of the original one and includes 15 or more unique illustrations which are relevant to its content.• “There is a chain of little lakes—a necklace of lost jewels—lying ... Read more

• The book is an edited and illustrated version of the original one and includes 15 or more unique illustrations which are relevant to its content.• “There is a chain of little lakes—a necklace of lost jewels—lying in the forest that clothes the blue Laurentian Mountains in the Province of Quebec. Each of these hidden lakes has its own character and therefore its own charm. One is bright and friendly, with wooded hills around it, and silver beaches, and red berries of the rowan-tree fringing the shores. Another is sombre and lonely, set in a circle of dark firs and larches, with sighing, trembling reeds along the bank. Another is only a round bowl of crystal water, the colour of an aquamarine, transparent and joyful as the sudden smile on the face of a child. Another is surrounded by fire-scarred mountains, and steep cliffs frown above it, and the shores are rough with fallen fragments of rock; it seems as if the setting of this jewel had been marred and broken in battle, but the gem itself shines tranquilly amid the ruin, and the lichens paint the rocks, and the new woods spring bright green upon the mountains. There are many more lakes, and all are different. The thread that binds them together is the little river flowing from one to another, now with a short, leaping passage, now with a longer, winding course.” Less