FIVE DAYS ON MOUNT MANSFIELD. 107 
ruin his health, if I understood him cor- 
rectly; and because of wild animals — bears 
and what not — he made his bed on the roof 
of his hermitage. I had often dreamed of 
the enjoyment of a life in the woods all by 
one’s self, but such a mode of existence did 
not gain in attractiveness as I saw it here in 
the conerete example. On the whole I was 
well satisfied to sleep in the hotel and eat 
at the hotel table. Liberty is good, but I 
thought it might be undesirable to be a slave 
to my own freedom. 
Two or three times a wagon-load of tour- 
ists appeared at the hotel. They strolled 
about the summit, admired the prospect, 
picked a bunch of sandwort, perhaps, but 
especially they went to see the snow. They 
had been at much trouble to stand upon the 
highest land in Vermont, and now that they 
were here, they wished to do or see some- 
thing unique, something that should mark 
the day as eventful. So they were piloted 
to a cave midway between the Nose and the 
Chin, into which the sun never peeped, and 
wherein a snow-bank still lingered. The 
mountain was grand, the landscape was mag- 
nificent, but to eat a handful of snow and 
