386 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS 



reached, and but ten miles of mountain road, 

 ravine, and valley remained to be traveled my 

 troubles fell away as the burden of Bunyan's 

 Christian rolled from his shoulders, and my 

 strength came back as it came to Antseus after 

 contact with his Mother Earth. 



I ran a telegraph wire through the woods from 

 the nearest station and the sounder in my room 

 was a comfort when it didn't sound. My family 

 were happy in their sylvan surroundings but they 

 came to hate that sounder, for they learned its 

 language and knew when it called me to the city 

 in tones not to be disregarded. 



On one such occasion I started in the black- 

 ness of a rainy night for a ten mile tramp over 

 a dangerous road to the little village of Shokan. 

 It was near midnight when I arrived, the town 

 was asleep, and I had to arouse several people 

 before I could find one who would drive me to 

 Rondout, eighteen miles away. At that place I 

 hired a negro to commandeer a boat, in the own- 

 er's absence, and row me across the Hudson to 

 Wheatsheaf, where I hired another man to take 



