skunk, and felt far from home. And 

 there on the top of the ridge, the high- 

 est point in that great amphitheater of 

 wooded hills, the only habitation in 

 sight, it stood out black against those 

 flaming bars, amid the silhouettes of 

 dying pines. 



The dog would have been a support, 

 but he wasn't there. After some experi- 

 ence of sketching-parties, he had given 

 up attending. Collies are particular, 

 and this one hated to sit with the wind 

 in his face. When we first had him, he 

 dogged every footstep for fear of being 

 left behind, but at this stage of his de- 

 velopment he would not stir a step with 

 sketching material or a gardening hat; 

 he knew too well that such accessories 

 led to nothing. Yet his polished behavior 

 in other respects had so impressed a 

 small visitor in long Greenaway robe 

 and cap, that when she made her series 

 of curtsies to the family semicircle on 

 leaving, she curtsied with equal gravity 

 to the dog as he lay chin to the floor, 

 half under the> table. And that was 

 quite right. Doubtless we all bow to 

 persons far less deserving than this for- 

 giving dog who always hastened to con- 

 sole you when you trod on him. 



However, on this occasion I had to 

 get home alone and dodge skunks un- 

 supported under that awesome sky. The 

 best part of a mile away and all the way 

 up-hill, the last pitch abominably steep 

 and rough, the choice of site would have 

 done credit to a robber baron, but the 

 land falls away gently to the Manchester 

 road on the other side. It took months 

 with a derrick and oxen to forge the con- 

 necting link, however; and one section, 

 which rounds a hill and crosses a gully, 

 looked like the bed of a mountain tor- 

 rent for weeks. The camp of 1865 led 

 to the choice of 1883, as many a camp 

 has done from Roman days on. The 

 Pequot war settled central Massachu- 

 setts as the Revolution filled up New 

 Hampshire and Vermont. It was not so 

 much that the land stood empty as that 

 men went out and saw the land, that it 

 was good. Behold a by-product of war. 



If the merry greenwood was as our 

 native heath, so too was the water. It 

 was about a third of a mile off the Rock 

 that he of the rifle once had a difference 



with a shark. He was out alone in a 

 dory when the shark happened along and 

 thought, being there, he might as well 

 see if he couldn't upset the boat. So 

 he came swarming up on the oar until 

 the youth got tired of it, and standing 

 up, balanced himself not to overreach in 

 case the shark proved slippery and 

 thrust the butt as hard as he dared be- 

 tween the eyes, which were about a 

 foot apart. But the shark was not slip- 

 pery. He felt rough, and as hard and 

 solid as a ledge, while the youth felt as 

 if he had hit that same. However, his 

 Honor seems not to have enjoyed it 

 either, for he soon settled in the water, 

 and circling lower and lower two or 

 three times, disappeared. 



Some years before that, this boy was 

 out with another when the harbor was 

 full of herring, and a whale appeared 

 which had followed the schools in. And 

 he popped up so frequently and blew in 

 such unexpected places that the boys 

 deemed it best to make for the nearest 

 land. Meantime the whale rose in their 

 wake with his jaws wide open in the 

 middle of a school of herring, and they 

 saw a lot of the fish flipping dry in his 

 throat ; and the boat came in and all the 

 passengers stood on deck looking at 

 him, and then he got excited and ran 

 ap-round, the tide being low, on some 

 shoals in behind the Island, and 

 thrashed about so, they thought he must 

 have hurt himself. It was a thrilling 

 afternoon. 



The dory is a proved little craft for 

 serious business in rough water, while 

 none can be better for ladies about rocks 

 and beaches ; because it has a flat bottom 

 and there is no keel to catch and leave 

 you tipping about with the lap of the 

 water running ever so far inside. 

 Moreover, the dory has so much shear 

 that very little of the bottom touches at 

 one time; and if it hangs anywhere, you 

 can take it by the nose and work it off 

 quite easily. We fully appreciated the 

 merits of a build which permitted cross- 

 insf the harbor in good gowns to make a 

 call we did not wish to spend a whole 

 evening on, landing perhaps on a lonely 

 l)it of shingle with a sharp little sea 

 thrashing in, "firing" all along the tops 

 of the waves. We often went out to 



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