Lake George 
and to help him realize the only legitimate aim 
of all vacation—a sound mind in a sound body. 
As everyone knows, in a small village, ‘‘ex- 
empt from public haunt,’’ and especially when 
several miles distant from a railroad, the only 
thrilling and perennial episode in life is the 
daily arrival of the mail. And this little fact 
fully shows what extremely adaptable creatures 
we all are. It is said that no other animal is 
able to endure such extremes of heat and cold 
as man, and certainly no other is able to sur- 
vive, as he can, the shock of alternate excite- 
ment and monotony, which are the soul’s heat 
and cold. And how great is man’s ingenuity 
to invent excitement where none exists! Ina 
little summer-resort one still enjoys something 
like the exhilaration of grand opera, as he sees 
the approaching coach down the road. And 
wher it actually rolls up to the door he almost 
feels the thrill of a theatrical climax. 
In daily excursions to and from the post- 
office I passed the village school-house, with its 
brood of hardly a dozen pupils; and I soon 
discovered that beneath the eaves a flock of 
cliff swallows were building their homes—a sort 
of collegiate annex, which is so much in vogue 
nowadays. They had just begun the erection 
211 
