AN UNPROMISING START. 291 



It was as bright and beautiful a day as ever blessed 

 the earth when we rattled out of Westport and struck 

 inland towards Elizabethtown. My joy, however, on 

 feeling myself once more bound for the woods, was soon 

 damped by the fear that I had put off my trip too long, 

 for a dreary sense of exhaustion began to steal over me, 

 and a deadly sinking of the heart made me hesitate 

 about placing myself beyond the reach of medical 

 advice and friends to take care of me. If I had been 

 alone, I should at once have turned back ; but I could 

 not bear to disappoint my companions, and so I pushed 

 on to Elizabethtown, where I lay down, feeling that a 

 bed was a fitter place for me than the rough bivouac of 

 the woods. Fortunately, I found here a good Samari- 

 tan in the person of Judge H , who furnished me 



with some medicine that I needed. Fortified with this, 

 I ventured to push on. 



The old familiar top of "White Face" now loomed 

 far up against the heavens, furnishing a landmark that 

 seemed always to keep nearly at the same distance with 

 every turn. Mile after mile we wound up a clear 

 trout-brook that went leaping and laughing down 

 its rocky bed, filled with the small mountain trout, 

 that could be seen darting around the transparent 



