The Cheerful Glacier

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Title:     The Cheerful Glacier
Author: Mary Hunter Austin [More Titles by Austin]

Very many years ago, at the foot of a nameless peak between Mount Ritter and Togobah, after three successive years of deep snow there was a glacier born. It crept out fanwise from a furrow on the mountain-side, very high up, above the limit of the white-barked pines, and its upper end was lost under the drift of loose snow that trailed down the slope. For three successive winters the gray veil of storms hung month-long about the crest of the Sierras, while the snow came falling, falling, and the wind kept heaping, heaping, until the drifts sagged and slipped of their own weight down the long groove of the mountain; and since it lay on the sunless northern slope, and as it happened the summers that came between fell cool and rainy, there, when the spring thaw had cleared the loose snow, spread out on a little stony flat lay the rim of the glacier. Yet it was a very little one, a rod or two of clear shining ice that ran into deep blue and gray sludge under a drift of coarse, whitish granules, and very high up, fine dry particles of snow like powdered glass. So it lay at the time of year when the mountain sheep began to come back to their summer feeding-grounds.

When the thaw had cleared the heather and warmed the lichened rocks, they loosed their hold of the ice, and the great weight of it began to crawl down the mountain. At the first slow thrill of motion the little glacier creaked with delight.

"Ah," it said, "it is evident that I am not a mere snow bank, for in that case I should remain in one place. Now I know myself truly a glacier." For up to that time it had been in some doubt.

By the end of the summer it had advanced more than a span in the shadow of the peak. Then the snows began, deep and heavy, but the glacier did not complain; it hugged the floor of the rift where it lay, and thought of the time when it should start on its travels again. So, because of thinking about it so much, or because the snows were deeper and the summers not so warm, the glacier increased and went forward until it had quite crossed the stony flat, and began to believe it might make its mark in the world. There were any number of reasons for thinking so. To begin with, all that neighborhood was deeply scarred and scoured by the trail of old glaciers, and the high peaks glittered with the keen polish of ice floes. All down the slope shone glassy bosses of clear granite succeeding to beds of cassiope and blue heather, polished slips of granite, pentstemon and more heather, smooth granite that the feet could take no hold upon, then saxifrage and meadowsweet, and so down to the stream border, where the water quarreled with the stones. And by the time the little glacier had settled that it would leave such a mark on the mountain-side, shining and softened by small blossomy things, it had come quite to the farthest border of the flat, and looked over the edge of a sharp descent. It was much too far to bend over, for though the glacier was all of brittle ice, it could bend a little.

"But it is really nothing," said the glacier. "I have only to grind down the cliff until it is the proper height;" and it took a firmer hold on the sharp fragments of stones it had gathered on its way down the ravine. The pressure of the sodden snow above kept on, however, and before the glacier had fairly begun its grinding the ice rim was pushed out beyond the bluff, broke off, and lay at the foot in a shining heap.

"So much the better," said the cheerful glacier. "What with grinding above and filling with broken ice below, the work will be accomplished in half the time."

But that never really happened, for this was the last season the ice reached to the far edge of the flat. The next year there was less snow and more sun. The long slope of bare rocks gathered up the heat and held it so that the ice began to melt underneath, and a stream ran from it and fell over the cliff in a fine silvery veil.

"How very fortunate," said the glacier, "to become the head of a river so early in my career. Besides, this is a much easier way of getting over the falls."

Then the water began to purr in sheer content where it went among the stones; it increased and went down the cañon toward the white torrent of the creek that flowed from Togobah, and the next summer a water ousel found it. She came whirling up the course of the stream like a thrown pebble, plump and slaty blue, scattering a spray of sound as clear and round as the trickle of ice water that went over the falls. The ousel sat on the edge of the ice rim to finish her song, and it timed with the running of the stream.

"You should understand," said the glacier, "that I started in life with the intention of cutting my way down the mountain. But now I am become a river I am quite as well pleased."

"Everything is the best," said the ousel; "that has been the motto of my family for a long time, and I am sure I have proved it." And if one listened close as she flew in and out of the falls and sought in the white torrent for her food, one understood that it was the burden of her song. "Everything is the best," she sang, and kept on singing it when the glacier had grown so small by running that it was quite hollowed out under the roof of granulated snow, and the light came through it softly and wonderfully blue. Then the ousel would go far up into this ice cave until the sound of her singing came out wild and sweet, mixed with the water and the tinkle of the ice. As for the words of her song, the glacier never disagreed with her, though by now it had retreated clear across its stony flat. But the wind brought in the seeds of dwarf willow that sprouted and took root, and bright little buttercups began to come up and shiver in the flood of ice water.

"It seems I am to have a meadow of my own," said the glacier, by the time there was stone-crop and purple pentstemon blowing in the damp crevices about its border. "I do not believe there is a prettier ice garden on this side of the mountain. And to think that all I once wished was to leave a track of bare and shining stones! The ousel is right, everything is for the best."

The ousel always went downstream at the beginning of the winter, when the running waters were shut under snow bridges and the pools were puddles of gray sludge, down and down to the foothill borders, and at the turn of the year followed up again in the wake of the thaw. So it was not often that the ousel and the glacier saw each other between October and June.

"But of course," said the glacier, "the longer you are away, the more we have to say to each other when you come."

"And anyway it cannot be helped," said the ousel. For though she did not mind the storms and cold weather, one cannot really exist without eating.

After one of these winter trips, the ousel noticed that the stream that came over the fall had quite failed, ran only a slender trickle that dripped among the shivering fern and was lost in the rock crevices, and though she was such a cheerful little body, she did not like to be the first to speak of it. It seemed as if the glacier could not last much longer at that rate. So she flitted about in the lace-work caverns of the ice, and sang airily and sweet, and the words of her song were what they had always been.

"That is quite true," said the glacier. "You see how it is with me; once I was very proud to run over the fall with a splashing sound, but now I find it better to keep all the water for my meadow."

In fact, there was quite a border of sod all about where the ice had been, and a great mat of white-belled cassiope in the middle. It grew greener and more blossomy every year. The ousel grew so used to finding it there, and so pleased with the society of the glacier, which was quite after her own heart, that it was a great grief to her as she came whirling up the stream in the flood tide of the year to find that they had both, the meadow and the ice, wholly disappeared.

That had been a winter of long, thunderous storms, and a great splinter of granite had fallen away from the mountain peaks and slid down in a heap of rubble over the place where the glacier had been. There was now no trace of it under sharp, broken stones.

But because they had been friends, the ousel could not keep quite away from the place, but came again and again and flew chirruping around the foot of the hill. One of those days when the sun was strong and the heather white on the wild headlands, she saw a slender rill of water creeping out at the bottom of the rubbish heap, and knew at once by the cheerful sound of it that it must be her friend the glacier, or what was left of it.

"Yes, indeed," bubbled the spring, "it is really surprising what good luck I have. As a glacier, I suppose I should have quite melted away in a few summers; but with all this protection of loose stones, I shouldn't wonder if I became a perennial spring."

And in fact that is exactly what occurred, for with the snow that sifted down between the broken boulders, and the snow water that collected in the hollow where the meadow had been, the spring has never gone quite dry. Every summer, when the heather and pentstemon and saxifrage on the glacier slip are at their best, the cheerful water comes out of the foot of the nameless peak and the ousel comes up from the white torrent and sits upon the stones. Then they sing together, and their voices blend perfectly; but if you listen carefully, you will observe that the words of their song are always the same.

Vocabulary of Indian Names and Words

CAMPOODIE (k[)a]mp'[=o]-dy). A group of Indian huts, from the Spanish campo, a field or prairie. In some localities written "campody."

HINONO (h[)i]-n[)o]-n[)o]). A legendary Indian hero.

MAHALA (m[.a]-h[:a]'l[)a]). An Indian woman, perhaps a corruption from the Spanish mujer, woman.

MESA (m[=a]'sä). A table-land, or plateau with a steeply sloping side or sides.

MESQUITE (m[)e]s-k[=e]t'). A thorny desert shrub, bearing edible pods, like the locust tree, which are ground into meal for food.

NA'[:Y]ANG-WIT'E. An Indian gambling game.

OPPAPAGO (op-p[)a]-p[=a]'g[=o]). A mountain peak near Mt. Whitney. The name signifies "The Weeper," in reference to the streams that run down from it continually like tears.

PAHRUMP (p[.a]h-r[)u]mp'). From the Indian words pah, water, and rump, corn, "corn-water," i. e. a place where there is water enough to grow corn.

PAIUTES (p[=i]'[=u]t). The name of a large tribe of Indians inhabiting middle California and Nevada. The name is derived from the Indian word pah, water, and is used to distinguish this tribe from the related tribe of Utes, who lived in the desert away from running water.

PENSTEMON (p[)e]ni-st[=e]'m[)o]n). A wild flower common to the lower slopes of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

PHARANAGAT (ph[)a]-r[)a]n-[)a]-g[)a]t'). An Indian name of a place. The meaning is uncertain.

PIÑON (p[.=e]-ny[=o]n'). The Spanish name for the one-leaved, nut pine.

PIPSISEWA (p[)i]p-s[)u]s'[=e]-w[.a]). A wild flower common to the lower slopes of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

QUERN (kw[^u]rn). A primitive mill for grinding corn. It consists of two circular stones, the upper being turned by hand.

SHOSHONE (sh[.=o]-sh[=o]'n[.=e]). An Indian tribe split in two by the Pintes, and living north and south of them. In this book the southern division only is referred to.

TABOOSE (t[.a]-b[)oo]s'). Small tubercles of the joint grass; they appear on the joints of the roots early in spring, and are an important item of food to the Indians.

TAVWOTS (t[)a]v-w[)o]ts'). The rabbit.

TINNEMAHA (tin-ny-m[.a]-hä'). A legendary Indian hero.

 
TOGOBAH (t[=o]-g[=o]-bä').           } Indian names of places. The
TOGONATEE (t[=o]-g[=o]-n[)a]-t[=e]').} meaning is uncertain.

TULARE (t[=oo]-lä're). A marshy place overgrown with the bulrushes known as tule.

VAQUERO (vä-k[=a]'r[=o]). The Spanish word for cowboy (from vaca, a cow).

WABAN (w[)a]-b[)a]n'). An Indian name of a place. The meaning is uncertain.

WICKIUP (w[)i]k'[)i]-[)u]p). An Indian hut of brush, or reeds. It is often pieced out with blankets and tin cans.

WINNEDUMAH (win-ny-d[=u]'m[)a]h). A legendary Indian hero.

[The end]
Mary Hunter Austin's short story: Cheerful Glacier

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