Life and adventures of Col.
L. A. Norton
WRITTEN ON THE SUMMIT OF FITCH MOUNTAIN WHILE
SITTING ON AN ANT-HILL (1887)
LITTLE ant, come, tell me why
Thou hast built thy home so high;
These high cliffs why didst thou scale
And leave the warm and pleasant vale?
Has
the same God that gave thee breath
Inspired in thee the thoughts of death,
Like
man, creation's lord while here,
And fitted for another sphere?
Like
his, doth thy ambition rise,
To endless life beyond the skies?
And is this mound, on which I've trod,
A temple of the living God?
And
didst thou choose this mountain high
To bring thy worship near the sky?
And didst thou tread, as Moses trod,
With priestly step, the mount of God?
Methinks I hear the answer, “Yes;
As creatures we could do no less
Than offer from this lofty shrine
To our Creator praise divine.”
If so, I'll heed thy warm appeal;
I reverence and respect thy zeal,
And peaceful leave thy busy home
Wiser than ere I hence had come,
In knowing that beneath my feet
Worshiping congregations meet,
Serving with thought sublime, as we,
In their own way, the Deity.
Life and adventures of Col. L. A. Norton.
Norton, Lewis Adelbert, b. 1819.
CREATED/PUBLISHED
Oakland, Cal : Pacific Press publishing house, 1887.
SUMMARY
Lewis Adelbert Norton (b. 1819) grew up in Canada and western New
York. Banished from Canada for taking the Patriot side in the Rebellion of
1837-1838, Norton settled in Illinois, where he raised a regiment for the
Mexican War. On his return home, he led an overland party to California.
Life and adventures of Col. L.A. Norton (1887) describes Norton's early
life and his journey west. Of his life in California, he chronicles
careers as miner, lawyer, and merchant in Placerville. In 1856 he moves to
Healdsburg, where his law practice involves him in the Squatter War on the
Russian River. The book closes with his account of an 1874 rail trip east,
revisiting Canada, New York, and New England before returning to
Healdsburg.
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