154 LIBERTY AND A LIVING. 



to the north of us a puff of steam or smoke 

 shows where the locomotive is dragging those 

 poor wretches off to their daily treadmill. 

 How very far away all such life seems. If it 

 were not for the daily newspapers, I should 

 almost forget that there were so many miser- 

 able beings grinding out their few years of 

 existence with so utter a disregard of the es- 

 sential facts in the case. That puff of smoke 

 is the last reminder of civilization that we shall 

 have during the day before we sight our village 

 again. As the last line of Thoreau's chapter is 

 read, the boat swings round into the breeze and 

 Arthur jumps ashore and makes us fast, while 

 we gather up our implements of work. The 

 shore here presents a picture not unusual at 

 this part of the bay. For three or four hun- 

 dred feet from the water there is a meadow 

 filled with low bushes and blackberry vines of 

 the creeping type. Then comes a rise in the 

 ground, and a plateau stretches away to the 

 north, covered with a heavy growth of trees. 

 The spot is a superb one for a big hotel or a 

 colony of cottages, and undoubtedly it would 

 long ago have been used for this purpose but 

 for the distance from the railroad ; it is a five- 



