Up Sterling 



agreeable because of the consciousness of 

 an excellent lunch in my haversack, pre 

 pared by loving hands for just such an 

 emergency. 



An ice-cold brook, trickling over a ledge, 

 decided the matter, and, though it was but 

 eleven o'clock, I flung off my haversack 

 and sank down on the mossy bank at the 

 foot of the ledge to eat my lunch. That 

 was a royal half-hour! With my drink 

 ing cup at my side, replenished often from 

 the crystal cold brook, and my dainty but 

 abundant lunch spread out on a snowy nap 

 kin before me, I reclined at ease, refreshing 

 my inner man of the flesh with viands fit 

 for a king, and my still more inner man of 

 the spirit with the beauty of that unspoiled 

 mountain forest, the low twittering of Oc 

 tober birds, and the silvery tinkle of the 

 brook. 



While I was eating, a red squirrel came 

 hitching down the trunk of a tree, and 

 stopped on the stub of a broken limb to 

 bark and scold at me. He was scarcely 

 six feet away, and I playfully threw a bit 

 of egg-shell at him. He disappeared with 



