WALK AND TALK. 29 



made these woods smell as fresh and sweet as a l)aby," 

 chimed in Johnson, Avhose thoughts doubtless took a back- 

 ward leap, at the moment, to a certain home circle in 

 Washington. 



"And as bright as a maiden's eye", sang out l)achielor 

 Benson, with a broad grin. 



"Oh! oh! — Why can't you fellows just enjoy this thing 

 in a good, old-fashioned way, without any such far-fetched 

 comparisons, and cheap sentiment! — I saj^ fellows," — and 

 Thompson's incipient wrath oozed aAvay perceptibly, — 

 " I say, what tremendous great trees these are! The little 

 chaps have a hard time of it down under these big maples 

 and hemlocks and spruces." 



' ' That broad-spreading beech tree would have delighted 

 Virgil himself, and these. I believe, are the veritable aisles 

 of the dim woods, that Hemans sang," added the Professor. 



"The woods are dim enough, to be sure," broke in 

 Thompson, "but they'll be dimmer before we get to camp 

 if you fellows stop to stare at every big tree you see." 



So on we trudged with joke or shout or in silence, as the 

 mood took us and the path permitted. Our way was a 

 simple track through a dense wilderness, over mountains, 

 down steep declivities, clambering over monstrous bould- 

 ers, through slough-holes, and crossing swollen streams on 

 fallen trees, — a bridge sometimes hard to find and always 

 dithcult to cross. 



The few small l)irds that inhabit the wilderness fiitted 

 about in the shades; a great gray owl right over our heads, 

 disturl.)ed in his dreams,' lifted himself from his lofty 



