FIELD-DAYS IN CALIFORNIA 



with all the rest, I must be a little hard of hear- 

 ing.) It seemed a thing against the order of 

 nature, I suppose, that the wearer of such a 

 beard should be so continually on his legs ; and 

 especially that he should be trudging to the same 

 places, so high up and so far off, for the second or 

 third time. 



On one occasion, when I was halfway up the 

 Glacier Point trail, I met a company of men and 

 women coming down, and one of the more ma- 

 tronly of the women kindly lingered to pass the 

 time of day with the stranger. Did n't he find 

 the trail pretty steep ? she inquired. And when 

 he told her at what a moderate pace he was tak- 

 ing it, and that he purposed remaining at the sum- 

 mit overnight, she patted him affectionately on 

 the shoulder (such liberties will the most vir- 

 tuous female sometimes take when exhilarated 

 by a mountain atmosphere), and assured him that 

 he was behaving very sensibly. He knew that 

 he was, but it comforted him to have her tell 

 him so. 



Again, in the middle of my hardest day's work, 

 as I began a rather tiresome long ascent follow- 

 ing a brief level space at the head of Nevada 

 Fall, two young fellows with fishing-rods came 

 suddenly round a bend in front, — on the way to 

 Little Yosemite, it seemed likely, — and as the 

 200 



