The Literary World Seventh Reader | Page 9

marked [v], see Dictionary.
[Illustration: Photograph by Aldrich
The Great Stone Face]

THE GREAT STONE FACE
I
One afternoon when the sun was going down, a mother and her little
boy sat at the door of their cottage, talking about the Great Stone Face.
They had but to lift their eyes, and there it was plainly to be seen,
though miles away, with the sunshine brightening all its features.
And what was the Great Stone Face? The Great Stone Face was a work
of Nature in her mood of majestic playfulness, formed on the
perpendicular side of a mountain by some immense rocks, which had
been thrown together in such a position as, when viewed at a proper

distance, precisely to resemble the features of the human countenance.
It seemed as if an enormous giant, or a [v]Titan, had sculptured his own
likeness on the precipice. There was the broad arch of the forehead, a
hundred feet in height; the nose, with its long bridge; and the vast lips,
which, if they could have spoken, would have rolled their thunder
accents from one end of the valley to the other.
It was a happy lot for children to grow up to manhood or womanhood
with the Great Stone Face before their eyes, for all the features were
noble, and the expression was at once grand and sweet, as if it were the
glow of a vast, warm heart that embraced all mankind in its affections,
and had room for more.
As we began with saying, a mother and her little boy sat at their cottage
door, gazing at the Great Stone Face, and talking about it. The child's
name was Ernest. "Mother," said he, while the Titanic visage smiled on
him, "I wish that it could speak, for it looks so very kindly that its voice
must be pleasant. If I were to see a man with such a face, I should love
him dearly."
"If an old prophecy should come to pass," answered his mother, "we
may see a man, some time or other, with exactly such a face as that."
"What prophecy do you mean, dear mother?" eagerly inquired Ernest.
"Pray tell me all about it!"
So his mother told him a story that her own mother had told to her,
when she herself was younger than little Ernest; a story, not of things
that were past, but of what was yet to come; a story, nevertheless, so
very old that even the Indians, who formerly inhabited this valley, had
heard it from their forefathers, to whom, they believed, it had been
murmured by the mountain streams, and whispered by the wind among
the tree tops. The story said that at some future day a child should be
born hereabouts who was destined to become the greatest and noblest
man of his time, and whose countenance, in manhood, should bear an
exact resemblance to the Great Stone Face.
"O mother, dear mother!" cried Ernest, clapping his hands above his

head, "I do hope that I shall live to see him!" His mother was an
affectionate and thoughtful woman, and felt that it was wisest not to
discourage the hopes of her little boy. She only said to him, "Perhaps
you may," little thinking that the prophecy would one day come true.
And Ernest never forgot the story that his mother told him. It was
always in his mind whenever he looked upon the Great Stone Face. He
spent his childhood in the log cottage where he was born, and was
dutiful to his mother, and helpful to her in many things, assisting her
much with his little hands, and more with his loving heart. In this
manner, from a happy yet thoughtful child, he grew to be a mild, quiet,
modest boy, sun-browned with labor in the fields, but with more
intelligence in his face than is seen in many lads who have been taught
at famous schools. Yet Ernest had had no teacher, save only that the
Great Stone Face became one to him. When the toil of the day was over,
he would gaze at it for hours, until he began to imagine that those vast
features recognized him, and gave him a smile of kindness and
encouragement in response to his own look of [v]veneration. We must
not take upon us to affirm that this was a mistake, although the Face
may have looked no more kindly at Ernest than at all the world besides.
For the secret was that the boy's tender simplicity [v]discerned what
other people could not see; and thus the love, which was meant for all,
became his alone.
II
About this time, there went a rumor throughout the valley that the great
man, foretold from ages long ago, who was to