1^4 THE BEAYER KIVEll WATERS. 



further into the Avihlerness. In the reprehensible drawing- of 

 h>ts for guides (the "reprehensible " being in the result) I 

 drew John, "tlie Talker." But I forecast my calamity. I 

 was then in blissful ignorance of wliat fnte had awarded 

 me, and will not now antieipale. 



At four o'clock in ihc morning, we wei-e up and away, 

 on foot, followed bv a te:im of horses conveying our bag- 

 gage,— on our way tlirougli the l\>rest, over a horrid road 

 to " Still-water," or Wardwell's, eleven miles distant. One 

 ordinarily likes better to read of the glories of an early, sum- 

 mer morning, than to actually get up and learn of its 

 exalted beauty experimentally. But if there is ever an 

 unfeigned joy, it is when one ' ' going in, " at the beginning of 

 his vacation, sets out upon a w:dk througli the genuine, uu- 

 qualilied forest, on such a l»right, fresh, dewy morning as 

 was vouchsafed to us. If Fenton's boarders had been 

 awake, they would have witnessed certain caperings and 

 saltations, on the part of our dignified company, during the 

 brief delay before we llnally set out, that would have 

 entirely convinced tiicm that something besides the wine of 

 the air had been iml)ibed. Men off in the woods are, after 

 all, only boys, of a larger growth, let out of school. 



AVe took lunch in our p'ockcts, not waiting for breakfast, 

 and after an hour or two, finding a mossy bank by a little 

 stream that had wandered but a few stei)s from the spring 

 where it was born, we spread ourselves around, in a free- 

 and-easy and miscellaneous way, and i-eslored the waning 

 freshness of our spirits with hard boiled eggs, sandwiches, 

 and cold water. Then on again we went, up hill and down, 



