152 A WEEK ON WALDEN'S EIDGE. 



heard reports. Yes, it was a good cave, 

 they said ; I could easily find it. But their 

 directions conveyed no very clear idea to 

 my mind, and by and by the woman began 

 talking to her husband in German. " She 

 is telling him he ought to go with me 

 and show me the way," I said to myself; 

 and the next moment she came back to 

 English. " He will go with you," she said. 

 I demurred, but he protested that he could 

 do it as well as not. " Take up a stick ; 

 you might see a snake," his wife called after 

 him, as we left the house. He smiled, but 

 did not follow her advice, though I fancied 

 he would have done so had she gone along 

 with us. A half-mile or so through the 

 pathless woods brought us to the cave, 

 which might hold a hundred persons, I 

 thought. The dribbling " creek " fell over 

 it in front. Then the man took me to my 

 path, pointed my way homeward, and, with 

 a handshake (the silver lining of which was 

 not refused, though I had been troubled 

 with a scruple), bade me good-by. First, 

 however, he told me that if I found any one 

 in Boston who wanted to buy a place on 

 Walden's Ridge, he would sell a part of his 



