IN THE CATSKILLS 



brim ; and just as you want to see clearest, into your 

 eye it goes, head and ears, and is caught between 

 the lids. You miss your cast, but you catch a 

 " blunder-head." 



We paused under a bridge at the mouth of Bis- 

 cuit Brook and ate our lunch, and I can recommend 

 it to be as good a wayside inn as the pedestrian need 

 look for. Better bread and milk than we had there 

 I never expect to find. The milk was indeed so 

 good that Aaron went down to the little log house 

 under the hill a mile farther on and asked for more; 

 and being told they had no cow, he lingered five 

 minutes on the doorstone with his sooty pail in his 

 hand, putting idle questions about the way and 

 distance to the mother while he refreshed himself 

 with the sight of a well-dressed and comely-looking 

 young girl, her daughter. 



"I got no milk," said he, hurrying on after 

 me, " but I got something better, only I cannot 

 divide it." 



" I know what it is," replied I ; " I heard her 

 voice." 



" Yes, and it was a good one, too. The sweetest 

 sound I ever heard," he went on, " was a girl's 

 voice after I had been four years in the army, and, 

 by Jove! if I did n't experience something of the 

 same pleasure in hearing this young girl speak after 

 a week in the woods. She had evidently been out 

 in the world and was home on a visit. It was a 

 248 



