Gbe Circumvention of (Bre^locR. 63 



of mowing-machines came from far-off fields. And 

 over all was the deep blue of the sky, and drifting 

 fleets of cumulus, wafted by the light breeze which 

 fanned our beaded brows. Oh, it was fine ! We 

 never expect to transcend the sensations of that run, 

 till perhaps we get our wings and learn to fly. Once 

 we dismounted to sit five minutes beside a tributary 

 brook, and pass bantering speech with an inquisitive 

 country lad. Once we stopped to tender sympathy 

 and aid for a collapsed tire to a brother wheelman — 

 the most demoralised and hopeless tire I ever saw. 



Then the ravine broadened into an intervale, and 

 the intervale into gracious meadows, and before we 

 could well realise where we were, the noble elms of 

 old Williamstown were arching over our heads, and 

 Greylock was behind us, and full in our sight, eastward 

 toward North Adams, rose the dignified forms of its 

 companion hills, Mount Williams, Mount Fitch, and 

 Mount Prospect. A college town without its popula- 

 tion of young men is a lonesome place ; yet we felt the 

 absence of the wise and distinguished youth and their 

 professors less than we might have done but for a 

 revelation of the presence of a sacred classic character 

 whose proximity was accidently betrayed to us. For 

 as we explored the vicinity of the Campus, a sunburnt 

 boy bearing a tennis racquet appeared on a sidewalk, 

 shouting across the street, " Say ! Where 's Homer ? " 

 And when a voice replied, " He can't come out yet," 

 we felt that we had met with a keen disappointment. 

 Yet we went the happier out of that town from a 



