RED LEAF DAYS 179 



were only two. Sometimes we walked side 

 by side ; sometimes we were rods apart. 

 When we felt like it we talked; then we 

 went on a piece in silence, as Christians 

 should. Let me never have a traveling 

 companion who cannot now and then keep 

 himself company. The ideal man for such 

 a role is one who is wiser than yourself, yet 

 not too wise, lest there be lack of recipro- 

 city, and you find yourself no better than a 

 boy rusticating with a tutor. He should be 

 even-tempered, also, well furnished with 

 philosophy, loving fair weather and good 

 living, but taking things as they come ; and 

 withal, while not unwilling to intimate his 

 own preference as to the day's route and 

 other matters, he should be always ready to 

 defer with all cheerfulness to his partner's 

 wish. " The ideal man," I say ; but I am 

 thinking of a real one. 



We have become well known in the valley, 

 after many years ; so that, although we are 

 almost the only walkers there, our ambu- 

 latory eccentricity has mostly ceased to pro- 

 voke comment. At all events, the people 

 no longer look upon us as men broken out 



