The Path to Joe's Pond 



in the path to Joe's Pond. The wheel-tracks 

 have been choked out by brush, and only a 

 spongy, noiseless, winding footway leads up 

 the slope toward the little sheet of water 

 nestling among the hills. There is nothing 

 utilitarian about this path. It is the trail of 

 the fisherman and the rambler. The hands 

 that blazed it and the feet that have beaten 

 it out were no slaves to traffic or gain. 

 Theirs was an enterprise of pure idealism. 

 For the inextinguishable love of nature, for 

 the satisfaction of an inward craving as old 

 as the race, have they made this path into 

 the heart of the woods, and gone to and 

 fro in it. All who journey to Joe's Pond 

 go in the same spirit the romantic spirit 

 of the old, free nature-life. 



Impelled by that spirit, we are winding 

 in and out among the solemn firs and 

 hemlocks, treading the springy moss and 

 mold of the ancient forest. No path is so 

 easy to the foot, so stimulating to the mus- 

 cles, as a good trail through the woods. 

 The firm cushion of centuries of leaf-mold 

 springs beneath every step, and the silence 

 and smoothness of the path make walking 

 seem like a kind of gliding or semi-flying. 

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