6 IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. 



soul, with no duties excepting to rejoice and to 

 recruit. This is not an easy thing to do ; it is 

 like tearing apart one's very life; but it can 

 be done by earnest endeavor, it has been done, 

 and it is a charm more potent than magic to 

 bring restoration and re-creation to the brain 

 and nerve-weary worker. 



To insure any measure of success I always go 

 alone ; one familiar face would make the effort 

 of no avail ; and I seek a place where I am a 

 stranger, so that my ordinary life cannot be 

 recalled to me. When I reach my temporary 

 home I forget, or at least ignore, my notions 

 as to what I shall eat or drink, or how I shall 

 sleep. I take the goods the gods provide, and 

 adjust myself to them. Even these little things 

 help one out of his old ways of thought and life. 

 To still further banish home concerns, I mark 

 upon my calendar one week before the day I 

 shall start for home, and sternly resolve that not 

 until I reach that day will I give one thought to 

 my return, but will live as though I meant to 

 stay always. I take no work of any sort, and I 

 banish books, excepting a few poets and studies 

 of nature* 



Such is the aim of my honest and earnest 

 striving ; that I do not quite reach my goal is 

 merely to say I am human. Letters from home 

 and friends will drag me back to old interests, 



