170 With Feet to the Earth 



a tramp, as we understand the species, in- 

 asmuch as he wandered across lots, was 

 content without pie, rum, and tobacco, sel- 

 dom slept in other men's barns, and never 

 begged for money. Nature is to each man 

 a reflection of himself, and with empty 

 pockets and empty stomach he may find it 

 as hard to be entertained and instructed by 

 it as if he went into the road with an empty 

 head. 



All the same, we need more solitude to 

 develop in our own way. We develop in 

 the ways of other people ; hence the con- 

 ventionality of towns. Our tour afoot, on 

 a bicycle, a-horseback, or in a carriage, that 

 is made alone, will prove to us what man- 

 ner of folks we are, and may surprise us. 

 If we are frightened and lorn at the first 

 day without society, but feel a little more 

 interest, confidence, and comfort on the 

 next, things are not going ill with us. By 

 the end of a week we shall have arrived at 

 comparative independence. We walk to 

 find out as much about ourselves as about 

 objects by the wayside, not to gain a self- 

 conscious knowledge, for that is morbid and 



