Whom God Hath Joined

It was about mid-day, and the train having emerged from the darknessof the St. Gothard tunnel, was now steaming rapidly on its windingline through the precipitous ravines of the Alps, under the hot glareof an August sun. On either side towered the mountains, their ruggedsides of grey chaotic stone showing bare and bleak at intervals amidthe dense masses of dark green foliage.Sometimes a red-roofed châlet would appear clinging swallow-like tothe steep hill-side--then the sudden flash of...
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It was about mid-day, and the train having emerged from the darknessof the St. Gothard tunnel, was now steaming rapidly on its windingline through the precipitous ravines of the Alps, under the hot glareof an August sun. On either side towered the mountains, their ruggedsides of grey chaotic stone showing bare and bleak at intervals amidthe dense masses of dark green foliage.Sometimes a red-roofed châlet would appear clinging swallow-like tothe steep hill-side--then the sudden flash of a waterfall tumbling insheets of shattered foam from craggy heights: high above, fantasticpeaks swathed in wreaths of pale mist, and now and then the glimpse ofa white Alpine summit, milky against the clear blue of the sky.On sped the engine with its long train of carriages, as though anxiousto leave the inhospitable mountain land for the fertile plains ofItaly--now crawling fly-like round the giant flank of a hill--anonplunging into the cool gloom of a tunnel--once more panting into thefeverish heat--sweeping across slender viaducts hanging perilouslyover foaming torrents--gliding like a snake under towering masses ofrock--and running dangerously along the verge of dizzy precipices,while white-walled, red-roofed, green-shuttered villages, shapelessrocks, delicately green forests, snow-clad peaks, and thread-likewaterfalls flashed past the tired eyes of the passengers in the trainwith the rapidity of a kaleidoscope.