A VISIT TO MOUNT AGASSIZ 235 



the field with flying jumps ; here "is a back- 

 ward valley prospect that I never can have 

 enough of ; and here, just over the wall, I 

 once surprised myself by finding a bunch of 

 yellow lady's-slippers. All this, and much 

 else, I now live over again. So advanta- 

 geous is it to walk in one's own steps. Many 

 times as I have come this way, I have never 

 come in fairer weather. 



And what is this ? It looks like a hay- 

 ing-bee. Eight horses and two yokes of 

 oxen, with several empty " hay-riggings " 

 and as many buggies, stand in confused 

 order beside the road, and over the wall 

 men are mowing, spreading, and turning. 

 It is some widow's grass field, I imagine, 

 and her loyal neighbors have assembled to 

 harvest the crop. Human nature is not so 

 bad, after all. So I am saying, with the 

 inexpensive charity natural to a sentimental 

 traveler, when I find myself near a group 

 of younger men who are bantering one of 

 their number (I am behind a bushy screen), 

 mixing their talk plentifully with oaths ; 

 such a vulgar, stupid, witless repetition of 

 sacred names without one saving touch 



