THE HEART OF THE SOUTHERN CATSKILLS 51 



which your feet must compass lie hidden there in 

 that wilderness; how they seem to multiply them- 

 selves; how they are fortified with logs, and rocks, 

 and fallen trees; how they take refuge in deep gul- 

 lies, and skulk behind unexpected eminences ! Your 

 body not only feels the fatigue of the battle, your 

 mind feels the strain of the undertaking ; you may 

 miss your mark; the mountains may outmanoeuvre 

 you. All that day, whenever I looked upon that 

 treacherous wilderness, I thought with misgivings 

 of those two friends groping their way there, and 

 would have given something to have known how 

 it fared with them. Their concern was probably 

 less than my own, because they were more ignorant 

 of what was before them. Then there was just a 

 slight shadow of a fear in my mind that I might 

 have been in error about some points of the geogra- 

 phy I had pointed out to them. But all was well, 

 and the victory was won according to the campaign 

 which I had planned. When we saluted our friends 

 upon their own doorstep a week afterward, the 

 wounds were nearly all healed and the rents all 

 mended. 



When one is on a mountain-top, he spends most 

 of the time in looking at the show he has been at 

 such pains to see. About every hour we would as- 

 cend the rude lookout to take a fresh observation. 

 With a glass I could see my native hills forty miles 

 away to the northwest. I was now upon the back 

 of the horse, yea, upon the highest point of his 

 shoulders, which had so many times attracted my 



