34 NEW HAMPSHIRE 



They are " roughing it " in earnest. For at least 

 eight or ten hours, possibly for as many days, 

 they have ceased to be concerned about the cut 

 of their garments or the smoothness of their hair. 

 Of some of them the aspect is fairly disreputable. 

 It is a solemn fact that you may here see gentle- 

 men with rents in their trousers and a week's 

 beard on their faces. And ten to one they will 

 brazen it out without apology. 



The dapper clerk and the prosperous merchant 

 and his wife, who have ridden up in the train 

 with their good clothes and their company faces 

 on, may stare if they will. It is nothing to the 

 campers and walkers. They are not on parade, 

 and do not mind being smiled at. A pretty col- 

 lege girl will walk about the office, alpenstock 

 in hand, with her hair tied in a careless knot, 

 her skirts well above the tops of her scratched 

 and dusty boots, her face brown and her sleeves 

 tucked up, and seem quite as much at ease as if 

 she were in full evening dress with the drawing- 

 room lights blazing upon her alabaster shoulders, 

 her laces, and her diamonds. It is heroism (or 

 heroinism) of a kind worth seeing. 



You are still enjoying the spectacle when two 

 men enter the door, one with a botanical box 

 slung over his shoulder. It is as if he had given 

 you the Masonic grip, and you hardly wait for 



