30 THE EXHILARATIONS OF THE ROAD 



Afoot and in the open road, one has a fair start 

 in life at last. There is no hindrance now. Let him 

 put his best foot forward. He is on the broadest 

 human plane. This is on the level of all the great 

 laws and heroic deeds. From this platform he is 

 eligible to any good fortune. He was sighing for 

 the golden age; let him walk to it. Every step 

 brings him nearer. The youth of the world is but 

 a few days' journey distant. Indeed, I know per- 

 sons who think they have walked back to that fresh 

 aforetime of a single bright Sunday in autumn or 

 early spring. Before noon they felt its airs upon 

 their cheeks, and by nightfall, on the banks of some 

 quiet stream, or along some path in the wood, or on 

 some hilltop, aver they have heard the voices and 

 felt the wonder and the mystery that so enchanted 

 the early races of men. 



I think if I could walk through a country, I / 

 should not only see many things and have adven- 

 tures that I should otherwise miss, but that I should 

 come into relations with that country at first hand, 

 and with the men and women in it, in a way that 

 would afford the deepest satisfaction. Hence I envy 

 the good fortune of all walkers, and feel like join- 

 ing myself to every tramp that comes along. I am 

 jealous of the clergyman I read about the other 

 day, who footed it from Edinburgh to London, as 

 poor Effie Deans did, carrying her shoes in her hand 

 most of the way, and over the ground that rugged 



