Excerpt from Hearthstone Echoes Many times have I watched the differently tinted clouds as, on airy wings, they gently floated across the summer sky. I have studied their nature, have wondered at their construction, and have almost wished they could be more durable. I have tried in a feeble way to arrange them in permanent form, as nearly as possible. I have painted them on canvas, as overhanging and giving tint to trees, houses, mountains, and seas; I have painted them encircling the rising sun, then overshadowing "the sunset's radiant glow;" I have painted the monstrous thunderheads, the dismal storm cloudy the snow cloud, the gilt-edged cloud, and the one with a silvery lining. Some of these paintings hang on the walls of our "home, sweet home;" so we can at any moment look at them and be somewhat reminded of the real objects, with their many forms and tints. In my quiet, serious moments, reflections drift into my mind like the many-tinted clouds, then chase each other a little while and sink beneath the horizon of thought Now and then I catch one and make a pencil drawing of it or place it in a blank book or in the columns of a local periodical. Friends have repeatedly asked me to gather up and arrange in book form some of the thoughts I have thus preserved, but I have timidly shrunk from the task. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.