24 November The Forester s Hut. 



impossible to see more than two or three hundred yards 

 in any direction. After walking in single file for the 

 distance of about a league, we came suddenly upon an 

 abrupt turn in the little dell, and there it ended, for a 

 barrier of hill rose directly in front of us, so steep as to 

 be almost inaccessible. There was a little open space 

 of natural meadow, and on one side of this stood the 

 forester's hut, scarcely distinguishable from the dense 

 vegetation that surrounded it, for the builder 'had used 

 material ready to his hand, and simply constructed a 

 sort of wigwam of young oak-trunks and branches, with 

 a thatch of gorse that covered both roof and wall. A 

 tiny rill had been artificially directed to a spout of hol- 

 low wood, and fell in a little cascade of the most perfect 

 purity on the stony ground in front of the cabin, trick- 

 ling afterwards amongst the pebbles, and finding its way 

 to the bit of meadow below. No human dwelling could 

 be more humble and primitive than this was. In the 

 remotest wilds of America there may be houses equally 

 primitive, but there can be no habitations nearer in 

 structure and conception to man's earliest ideal of a 

 home. The inhabitants were already awake, and we 

 had immediate access to the interior. There were a 

 couple of low bedsteads, made roughly from young 

 trees and covered with sheets of canvas. There were 

 two or three shelves, with nothing on them but a little 

 of the commonest earthenware, and the rest of the fur- 

 niture included nothing that Socrates would have re- 

 jected as unnecessary. It is just possible that Diogenes 

 might have discovered a superfluity. 



