DELIGHTS O3? TOBACCO. 29 



that there is a downy sensation as yon sink in the fra- 

 grant herbage. Now pull off your boots, light your pipe 

 and enjoy it. The stars are twinkling overhead, as if they 

 had come nearer earth, looking like diamonds amid the 

 sombre branches of the white pine towering a hundred 

 and fifty feet above you. The camp fires throw a lurid 

 light on the rocky banks of the little creek, whose waters 

 are lulling you with their gentle cadence, as they glide 

 over a miniature Niagara. The laurel and creeping yew 

 look like the ivy on some old ruined castle wall. Puff ! 

 The talk of Sydney Smith or Sheridan would be a bore. 

 You see visions brighter, fairer, rosier, than ever did the 

 inspired author of the Ancient Mariner, and you fall 

 asleep in that pure air to dream of still brighter fanta- 

 sies. No doubt that smoking injures many a young man 

 confined all day to a close counting-room, spending his 

 evenings at the billiard hall or club, but to one whose life 

 is mostly out of door, with exercise enough to engender a 

 weary feeling at night, the moderate use of tobacco is 

 certainly beneficial. 



After carrying a knapsack containing thirty or forty 

 pounds of provisions, a heavy compass, climbing hills, 

 that rise with 110 gentle inclination, twelve or fifteen hun * 

 dred feet above the rapid, rushing river at their base ; 

 stopping at noon time only long enough to eat a cold 

 bite ; forcing your way through laurel swamps and tama- 

 rack thickets, impenetrable save to the skulking wolf and 

 thick-coated bear, then the tobacco is a wonderful solace, 

 and the best proof that it works no injury is the refreshed 

 feeling you awake with next morning, conscious that 

 there is no reasonable task you could not perform. 



I look back on those days with a satisfaction I can 

 hardly express, and have such a vivid recollection of 

 every hill, intervale and stream, that without the help of 

 compass, I could, after the lapse of twenty years, trnce a 



