BENSON DISCOURSES OF TIIE WOODS. 13 



"Stop! .slop! my dear fellow, I suppose you mean by all 

 this to tell me I'll enjoy the trip, and so I doubtless shall it' 

 I go, and it' I should survive all its hardships." 



"I mean to say." said Benson, earnestly. " that ton , man 

 whose life is chielly within four brick walls, and whose 

 every breath lakes up some part of the street and its tilth, 

 \\ho-edaily work is such that his body and health are a 

 daily saeriliee to the necessities of sedentary life, to such a 

 man there is nothing in the whole range of remedial agents 

 ti> make him so sound and strong and well and in so short a 

 time, like the two or three we^-ks he can spare for a trip in 

 the woods. And 1 want vou to <j;o with me! I've set my 

 heart on it. There's a good parly of usand I'll take care that 

 the hardships shan't hurt von. You'll have to light your 

 own mos<|iiitoes and hear the petty annoyances of camp 

 life; hut as for a man's dyinu; in the woods of dyspepsia or 

 biliousness for want of a drug store or a doctor," and he 

 threw his head back with an explosion of laughter "thai - 

 the very latest objection to the woods I ever heard! " 



I fell that I was answered, and uttered not a word in 

 reply, except to <:iy. " Well, so be it, I'll go!" 



Tims it came to pa<s that I. somewhat below the average 

 in health and strength at the time, and really needing the 

 remedy my friend proposed, without any forethought or 

 planning <>f my own, was booked for my tirst excursion to 

 the Northern Wilderness of New York. When a boy. a 

 fowling piece and a rod were my chief delight, and my 

 choicest recreations were in the " wood lots" and along the 

 streams of my father's and adjoining farms; and a guii 



