64 FOOTING IT IN FRANCONIA 



that curiosity will rather lose its edge, and 

 the power of beauty strike deeper and 

 deeper home. So may it be ! Then we shall 

 not be dead while we live. Sure I am that 

 the glory of mountains, the splendor of au- 

 tumnal forests, the sweetness of valley pro- 

 spects, were never more rapturously felt by 

 me than during the season just ended. And 

 still, as I started just now to say, I had spe- 

 cial joy this year in a new specimen, an addi- 

 tional bird for my memory and notebook. 



The forenoon of September 26, my fourth 

 day, I spent on Garnet Hill. The grand 

 circuit of that hill is one of the best esteemed 

 of our longer expeditions. Formerly we did 

 it always between breakfast and dinner, hav- 

 ing to speed the pace a little uncomfortably 

 for the last four or five miles ; but times 

 have begun to alter with us, or perhaps we 

 have profited by experience ; for the last few 

 years, at any rate, we have made the trip an 

 aU-day affair, dining on Sunset HiU, and loi- 

 tering down through the Landaff VaUey — 

 with a side excursion, it may be, to fill up 

 the hours — in the afternoon. This trip, 

 being, as I say, one of those we most set by. 



