4 : NEW HAMPSHIRE 



overcoat and everything that goes with it (the 

 date was May 17), I reached my destination, five 

 miles away, at the foot of Moosilauke. 



All this would hardly deserve narration, per- 

 haps (the story of travelers' discomforts being 

 mostly matter for skipping), only that it marked 

 the setting in of a cold, rainy " spell " that hung 

 upon us for four days. Four sunless days out of 

 seven was a proportion fairly to be complained 

 of. The more I consider it, the truer seems the 

 equation just now stated, that mountain weather 

 is three fifths of life. For those four days I did 

 not even see Moosilauke, though we were living, 

 so to speak, upon its shoulder, and I knew by 

 hearsay that the summit house was visible from 

 the back doorstep. 



My first brief walk before supper should rea- 

 sonably have been in the clearer valley country ; 

 but if reason spoke inclination did not hear it, 

 and my feet which seem to feel that they are 

 old enough by this time to know their master's 

 business for him took of their own motion an 

 opposite course. The mountain woods, as I en- 

 tered them, had the appearance of early March : 

 only the merest sprinkling of new life, clin- 

 tonia leaves especially, with here and there a 

 round-leaved violet, both leaves and flowers, 

 upon a ground still all defaced by the hand of 



