(joing round the Hudson. 79 



our money. We had all the fixens, and were put- 

 ting out for the Shatagee. 'Joe,' said old Pete, to 

 me, ' let's go round the darned river, and cheat the 

 blasted Ingen out of his shillin'.' ' AgTeed,' says I, 

 and the ferryman grinned when he saw us move up 

 stream. We started for the sources of the Hudson, 

 and we went round the river. We were five weeks 

 away up among the Adirondack mountains. That's 

 a wild country for you, Squire. If you want to see 

 mountains piled up, and valleys scooped out, and 

 lakes, and ponds, and streams, and trout, and deer, 

 and bear, and a sprinklin' of painters, and catamounts, 

 do as old Pete Meigs and I did — go round the 

 Hudson. 



" I mind one day we came to an old baldheaded 

 mountain, standing all alone by itself, liftin' its top 

 high above the clouds, and defy in' the storms that 

 beat against its rugged sides. Old Pete proposed, that 

 he go round it one way, and I the other, and meet 

 on the opposite side. It warn't like going round a 

 haystack, 'Squire, you may believe. It was five good 

 miles around, and a smart chance of breaking your 

 neck in the bargain, over the loose rocks that had 

 tumbled down the side of the mountain. Well, I had 



