CHAPTER VII. 



Neiv York as a Summer Residence. — The 

 Country in Winter. — The Old Boston Post- 

 Road. — On the Way again to Ridgefield. 



The thermometer is not always an indicator 

 of temperature. That depends quite as much 

 upon the quantity of moisture in the atmos- 

 phere as upon conditions that are frequently 

 only apparent. In the high altitudes of the 

 West we are less uncomfortable in our shirt- 

 sleeves with the mercury at zero than we find 

 ourselves in New York when wrapped in flan- 

 nels and ulsters, the glass showing thirty de- 

 grees. 



Another atmospheric peculiarity we cannot 

 fail to notice. Directly upon the seashore the 

 climate, whether the thermometer corresponds 

 ox not, is milder than it is ten or a dozen 



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