4 FOOTING IT IN FRANCONIA 



junctive particle, " if it is, what say you to 

 walking to Betlileliem by the way of Wal- 

 lace Hill, and taking in Mount Agassiz on 

 our return after dinner?" Or the prophet 

 speaks more doubtfully, and the other says, 

 *' Oh well, if it is cloudy and threatening, 

 we will go the Landaff Valley round, and 

 see what birds are in the larch swamp. If 

 it seems to have set in for a steady rain, 

 we can try the Butter Hill road." 



And so it goes. In Franconia it must be 

 a very bad half day indeed when we fail to 

 stretch our legs with a five or six mile jaunt. 

 I speak of those of us who foot it. The 

 more ease-loving, or less uneasy members of 

 the party, who keep their carriage, are nat- 

 urally less independent of outside conditions. 

 When it rains they amuse themselves in- 

 doors ; a pitch of sensibleness which the rest 

 of us may sometimes regard with a shade of 

 envy, perhaps, though we have never admit- 

 ted as much to each other, much less to any 

 one else. To plod through the mud is more 

 exhilarating than to sit before a fire ; and 

 we leave the question of reasonableness and 

 animal comfort on one side. Time is short, 



