BOOKS FOR HOLIDAYS 265 



possible to enjoy a book; and then there are 

 rainy afternoons in the country in autumn, and 

 stormy days in winter, when one's w^ork out- 

 doors is finished and after wet clothes have 

 been changed for dry, the rocking-chair in front 

 of the open wood-fire simply demands an ac- 

 companying book. 



Railway and steamboat journeys were, of 

 course, predestined through the ages as aids to 

 the enjoyment of reading. I have always taken 

 books with me when on hunting and exploring 

 trips. In such cases the literature should be 

 reasonably heavy, in order that it may last. 

 You can under these conditions read Herbert 

 Spencer, for example, or the writings of Turgot, 

 or a German study of the Mongols, or even a 

 German edition of Aristophanes, with erudite 

 explanations of the jokes, as you never would 

 if surrounded by less formidable authors in 

 your own library; and when you do reach the 

 journey's end you grasp with eager appetite at 

 old magazines, or at the lightest of literature. 



Then, if one is worried by all kinds of men 

 and events — during critical periods in adminis- 

 trative office, or at national conventions, or 

 during congressional investigations, or in hard- 

 fought political campaigns — it is the greatest 

 relief and unalloyed delight to take up some 



