64 DECEMBER OUT-OF-DOORS. 



But I answer, in all good conscience, yes. 

 The motto with which I began states the 

 truth somewhat strongly, perhaps (it must 

 be remembered where I got it), but aside 

 from that one bit of harmless borrowed hy- 

 perbole, I have delivered a plain, unvar- 

 nished tale. For all that, however, I do 

 not expect my industrious fellow-citizens to 

 fall in at once with my opinion that winter 

 is a pleasant season at the seashore (it 

 would be too bad they should, as far as my 

 own enjoyment is concerned), and December 

 a month propitious for leisurely all-day ram- 

 bles. How foreign such notions are to peo- 

 ple in general I have lately had several for- 

 cible reminders. On one of my jaunts from 

 Marblehead to Swampscott, for example, I 

 had finally taken to the railway, and was in 

 the narrow, tortuous cut through the ledges, 

 when, looking back, I saw a young gentle- 

 man coming along after me. He was in full 

 skating rig, fur cap and all, with a green 

 bag in one hand and a big hockey stick in 

 the other. I stopped every few minutes to 

 listen for any bird that might chance to be 

 in the woods on either hand, and he could 

 not well avoid overtaking me, though he 



