Page 22 - 1923 February - To Dragma

TO DRAGMA OF ALPHA OMICRON PI 119

ELKMONT

She was a very small person indeed, numbering eight brief summers
only, this friend of mine of a day, but my need of her is sore. I need
her words to visualize a scene I w a n t to give to each o f y o u , so that
y o u may k n o w the c h a r m and feel the spell of E l k m o n t , as she could
m a k e y o u k n o w i t . M y a c q u a i n t a n c e w i t h her was one of those fleeting
encounters which last f o r a moment—a day perhaps—but which leave
life richer for having occurred.

It was on the boat which carries visitors out to the colorful Mag-
nolia Gardens up the river f r o m Charleston. Her rolicking mood of the
m o r n i n g had vanished completely and her eyes, sparkling brown, were
so shadowed in thought that I paused beside m y fellow-passenger to
put the question, " H o w did you like the Gardens?" She ignored the
question but i n her t u r n queried, " D i d y o u see the f a i r i e s ? " " N o , " I
r e p l i e d t h o u g h t f u l l y , f e a r f u l lest I break the spell, " I d i d n o t see t h e m .
Did you?" "No, but I knew they were there. There were old women
fairies, who made the moss and the old men fairies hung it on the
trees. T h e r e were p r e t t y lady f a i r i e s , they made the flowers and the
little wee baby f a i r i e s painted a l l the buds. N o , I d i d not see the f a i r i e s
but I saw where they lived j n the hollow trees. I saw the holes where
they came and went."

N o traveler's description has ever touched the soul of the M a g -
nolia Gardens as d i d t h a t o f m y l i t t l e f r i e n d o f t h a t day.

I f she were to take y o u to E l k m o n t i t would be not only fairies
whose presence she would sense, but w i t h them wilder, more untamed
spirits, gnomes, and elves, and goblins, the spirit of the winds and the
torrents. Ariel is there and Caliban and laughing Puck while the great
god Pan lurks just behind a rock and teases one w i t h fragmentary
snatches of song on his reed pipes.

No matter if a man-made train must carry one up the gorge of
" L i t t l e River" to the mountain top, Nature has lost none o f her rugged
majesty f o r the traveller. N o sense o f civilization could ever conquer the
spirit of that tumbling torrent which gashes its way down the mountain
side, turning this way and that, twisting back on its self in its reckless
abandon. Occasionally f o r a brief space w i l l be a pool whose m i r r o r e d
s u r f a c e seems to mock the cataract w h i c h created i t and t o be i n close
communion w i t h the pines and the rhododendrons which shelter its banks.
A n d towering ever above it are the precipitous sides o f the mountain, the
very nearness of whose peaks make them appear utterly unattainable to
the traveler.

N o r has civilization marred the w i l d charm o f the mountain top which
does flatten o u t sufficiently f o r man to g a i n a f o o t h o l d . I f we cannot live
in caves w i t h any degree of c o m f o r t and must have modern shelter, the
hosteleries are no offence to their surroundings. Rustic rough hewn
buildings they are, which are called clubs or hotels f o r lack of a better