246 AN owva head holiday. 



look round the corner of the house at Owl's 

 Head itself, at whose base we were. The hotel 

 had less than a dozen guests and no piano, and 

 there was neither carriage - road nor railway 

 within sight or hearing. Yes, this was the 

 place where I would spend the eight days 

 which yet remained to me of idle time. 



Of the eight days five were what are called 

 unpleasant ; but the unseasonable cold, which 

 drove the stayers in the house to huddle about 

 the fire, struck the mosquitoes with a torpor 

 which made strolling in the woods a double 

 luxury ; while the rain was chiefly of the show- 

 ery sort, such as a rubber coat and old clothes 

 render comparatively harmless. Not that I 

 failed to take a hand with my associates in 

 grumbling about the weather. Table-talk 

 would speedily come to an end in such circum- 

 stances if people were forbidden to criticise the 

 order of nature ; and it is not for me to boast 

 any peculiar sanctity in this respect. But when 

 all was over, it had to be acknowledged that I, 

 for one, had been kept in-doors very little. In 

 fact, if the whole truth were told, it would 

 probably appear that my fellow boarders, see- 

 ing my persistency in disregarding the inclem- 

 ency of the elements, soon came to look upon 

 me as decidedly odd, though perhaps not abso- 

 lutely demented. At any rate, I was rather 



