18 NEW HAMPSHIRE 



are marked off by guideboards, so that the new- 

 comer need not fall into the usual disheartening 

 mistake of supposing himself almost at the top 

 before he has gone halfway. As for the first 

 mile, which must measure near a mile and a half, 

 and which ends just above the " second brook " 

 (every mountain path has its natural waymarks), 

 I had been over it twice within the last few days, 

 so that the edge of my curiosity was dulled ; but, 

 with one excuse and another, I managed easily 

 enough to give it its allotted hour. For one 

 thing, a hairy woodpecker detained me five or ten 

 minutes, putting such tremendous vigor into his 

 hammering that I was positively certain (with 

 a shade of uncertainty, nevertheless, such as all 

 "observers" will understand; there is nothing 

 so true as a paradox) that he must be a pileatus, 

 till at last he showed himself. " Well, well," said 

 I, " guesswork is a poor dependence." It was 

 well I had stayed by. The forest was so nearly 

 deserted, so little animated, that I felt under ob- 

 ligation to the fellow for every stroke of his mal- 

 let. Though a man goes to the wood for silence, 

 his ear craves some natural noises, enough, at 

 least, to make the stillness audible. 



The second mile is of steeper grade than the 

 firsthand toward the close brought me suddenly 

 to a place unlike anything that had gone before. 



