A VISIT TO MOUNT AGASSIZ 245 



The men who live in such houses, the 

 keeper teUs me, are very wide-awake and 

 well informed, reading their weekly news- 

 paper with thoroughness, and always ready 

 for rational talk on current topics. They 

 are not rich, of course, in the down-country 

 sense of the word, and see very little money, 

 subsisting mainly upon the produce of the 

 farm ; a matter of twenty-five dollars a year 

 may cover all their expenditures ; but they 

 are better fed, and really live in more com- 

 fort, than a great part of the folks who live 

 in cities. I am glad to believe it ; and I 

 like the man's way of standing by his neigh- 

 bors. In fact, I think higlily of him as a 

 person of a good heart and no small dis- 

 crimination ; and therefore I am all the 

 gladder when, having left the summit and 

 stopped for a minute in the shade of a tree, 

 I overhear him say to the musician, " That 

 old man enjoys himself ; he 's a nice old 

 man." "Thank you," say I, not aloud, 

 but with deep inward sincerity ; " that 's 

 one of the best compliments I've had for 

 many a day." Blessings on this mountain 

 air, that makes human speech unintention- 



