AN OWISS HEAD HOLIDAY. 247 



glad than otherwise to think so. In those long 

 days there must often have been a dearth of 

 topics for profitable conversation, no matter 

 how outrageous the weather, and it was a 

 pleasure to believe that this little idiosyncracy 

 of mine might answer to fill here and there a 

 gap. For what generous person does not re- 

 joice to feel that even in his absence he may be 

 doing something for the comfort and well-being 

 of his brothers and sisters ? As Seneca said, 

 " Man is bor-n for mutual assistance." 



According to Osgood's " New England," the 

 summit of Owl's Head is 2,743 feet above the 

 level of the lake, and the path to it is a mile 

 and a half and thirty rods in length. It may 

 seem niggardly not to throw off the last petty 

 fraction ; and indeed we might well enough let 

 it pass if it were at the beginning of the route, 

 . if the path, that is, were thirty rods and a 

 mile and a half long. But this, it will be ob- 

 served, is not the case ; and it is a fact per- 

 fectly well attested, though perhaps not yet 

 scientifically accounted for (many things are 

 known to be true which for the present cannot 

 be mathematically demonstrated), that near the 

 top of a mountain thirty rods are equivalent to 

 a good deal more than four hundred and ninety- 

 five feet. Let the^ guide-book's specification 

 stand, therefore, in all its surveyor-like exact- 



