Excerpt from Diane: Mississippi Valley Rose pulled herself cautiously up the last twisting shelf. Ah, there it was, that mighty sweep of hurtling river, that endless golden lift of circling hill! It was even more beautiful than they had promised her. But what could the village 'be that crowned those far heights? No frontier settlement, surely. True, the houses were for the most part poor and plain; through this crystalline air, she could discern even the rough, winter-blackened logs, the red of low chimneys. But in their midst reared a great shattered bulk; an old-world ruin; an uncouth palace, heaped together like a child's block-house, 'marred with staring windows, daubed with futile ornament; a plaything, yet a plaything for giants; hideous, yet so vast that the eye sank bewildered before its soaring majesty. 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.