A TRAMP IN TIIi: CATSKILLS 



85 



disheartened, I would have sold my interest in Thomas's 

 Lake at a very low figure. For the first time, I heartily 

 wished myself well out of the woods. Thomas might 

 keep his lake, and the enchanters guard his possession ! 

 I doubted if he had ever found it the second time, or if 

 any one else ever had. 



My companions, who were quite fresh, and who had 

 not felt the strain of baffled purpose as I had, assumed 

 a more encouraging tone. After I had rested a while, 

 and partaken sparingly of the bread and whiskey, 

 which in such an emergency — and only in such — is 

 a great improvement on bread and water, I agreed to 

 their proposition that we should make another attempt. 

 As if to reassure us, a robin sounded his cheery call 

 near by, and the winter wren, the first I had heard 

 in these woods, set his music-box going, which fairly 

 ran over with fine, gushing, lyrical sounds. There 

 can be no doubt but this bird is one of our finest 

 songsters. If it would only thrive and sing well when 

 caged, like the canary, how far it would surpass that 

 bird ! It has all the vivacity and versatility of the 

 canary, without any of its shrillness. Its song is indeed 

 a little cascade of melody. 



We again retraced our steps, rolling the stone, as 

 it were, back up the mountain, determined to commit 

 ourselves to the line of marked trees. These we finally 

 reached, and, after exploring the country to the right, 

 saw that bearing to the left was still the order. The 

 trail led up over a gentle rise of ground, and in less 

 than twenty minutes we were in the woods I had passed 

 through when I found the lake. The error I had made 

 was then plain; we had come off the mountain a few 

 paces too far to the right, and so had passed down oi^ 



