14000 MILES 



mail, was attracted by our traveling outfit and eagerly 

 "interviewed" us, but with little satisfaction, as you may 

 well know. That we were going to Shirley, six miles 

 distant, was of little interest to him or his readers. 



We now started in real earnest and soon were on the 

 winding road to Shirley. We took our first wayside 

 lunch before we got to Groton, where Charlie had two 

 hours' rest, and we passed the time pleasantly with 

 friends. An uneventful drive of ten miles in the after- 

 noon brought us to Westford, where we spent the first 

 night. There is no hotel in the place, but we found a 

 good woman who took care of us, and a jolly blacksmith 

 opposite who promised good care for our horse. We 

 strolled down street in the evening and called on friends 

 who were enjoying country air and rest for a few weeks. 

 Our sleep was refreshing, and morning found us ready 

 for an early start somewhere, but exactly where we had 

 no idea. After a brief consultation we concluded we 

 should like to go to the Isles of Shoals again, and accord- 

 ingly we traced the way on our map towards Portsmouth, 

 N. H. It was hot and dusty, and we passed through 

 Lowell with no inclination to stop, but when out of sight 

 of the city with its heat and dust and rattling machin- 

 ery, we left Charlie to enjoy his dinner and took our 

 books in the shade down by the Merrimac River, and 

 were fanned by its breezes for two hours. The drive 

 through Lawrence to Haverhill, where we passed the 

 second night, was quite pleasant. 



The chief recollections of the thirty-two miles we 

 traveled the next day are a few drops of rain in the 

 morning, just enough to aggravate, for we were almost 



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