A MAY VISIT TO MOOSILAUKE 17 



ing of sunshine and clear atmosphere. So far it 

 was ideal mountain weather ; but the cold wind 

 was so strong at our level that it was certain 

 to be nothing less than a hurricane at the top. 

 I waited, therefore, twenty-four hours longer. 

 Then, at quarter before seven on the morning 

 of May 23, I set out. I am as careful of my 

 dates, it seems, as if I had been starting for the 

 North Pole. And why not ? The importance of 

 an expedition depends upon the spirit in which it 

 is undertaken. Nothing is of serious consequence 

 in this world except as subjective considerations 

 make it so. Even the North Pole is only an 

 imaginary point, the end of an imaginary line, 

 as old geographies used to inform us, pleonas- 

 tically, as if "position without dimensions," 

 a something without length, breadth, or thick- 

 ness, could be other than imaginary. I started, 

 then, at quarter before seven. Many years ago 

 I had been taken up the mountain road in a car- 

 riage ; now I would travel it on foot, spending 

 at least an hour upon each of its five miles, and 

 so see something of the mountain itself, as well 

 as of the prospect from the summit. 



The miles, some longer, some shorter, as I 

 thought (a not unpleasant variety, though the 

 fourth stage was excessively spun out, it seemed 

 to me, perhaps to make it end at the spring), 



