HEART OF THE SOUTHERN CATSKILLS 51 



have resulted. The theory of a thing is so 

 much easier than the practice. The theory is 

 in the air, the practice is in the woods; the 

 eye, the thought, travel easily where the foot 

 halts and stumbles. However, our friends 

 made the theory and the fact coincide; they 

 kept the dividing line between the spruce and 

 the birches, and j^assed over the ridge into the 

 valley safely, but they were torn and bruised 

 and wet by the showers, and made the last few 

 miles of their journey on will and pluck alone, 

 their last pound of positive strength having 

 been exhausted in making the descent through 

 the chaos of rocks and logs into the head of the 

 valley. In such emergencies one overdraws 

 his account; he travels on the credit of the 

 strength he expects to gain when he gets his 

 dinner and some sleep. Unless one has made 

 such a trip himself (and I have several times 

 in my life) he can form but a faint idea what 

 it is like — what a trial it is to the body and 

 what a trial it is to the mind. You are ficht- 

 ing a battle with an enemy in ambush. How 

 those miles and leagues which your feet must 

 compass lie hidden there in that wilderness; 

 how they seem to multiply themselves; how 

 they are fortified with logs, and rocks, and 

 fallen trees; how they take refuge in deep gul- 

 lies, and skulk behind unexpected eminences! 

 Your body not only feels the fatigue of the 

 battle, your mind feels the strain of tlie under- 

 taking; you may miss your mark; the moun- 

 tains may outmanoeuvre you. All that day, 



