22 NEW HAMPSHIRE 



way to the bare ridge connecting the South Peak 

 up which I had been trudging all the fore- 

 noon and the main summit. This, with its 

 little hotel, that looked as if it were in danger of 

 sliding off the mountain northward, was straight 

 before me across the ravine, a long but easy mile 

 away. 



On the ridge I found myself all at once in 

 something like a gale of ice-cold wind. Who 

 could have believed it? It was well I had 

 brought a sweater ; and squatting behind a lucky 

 clump of low evergreens, I wormed my way into 

 what is certainly the most comfortable of all gar- 

 ments for such a place,, as good, at least, as 

 two overcoats. Now let the wind whistle, espe- 

 cially as it was at my back, and was bearing 

 me triumphantly up the slope. So I thought, 

 bravely enough, till the trail took a sudden 

 shift, and the gale caught me on another tack. 

 Then I sang out of the other corner of my 

 mouth, as I used to hear country people say. 

 I no longer boasted, but saved my breath for 

 better use. 



Wind or no wind, it is an exhilaration to walk 

 here above the world. Once a bird chirps to me 

 timidly from the knee-wood close by. I answer 

 him, and out peeps a white-throat. " You here ! " 

 he says ; " so early ! " At my feet is plenty of 



