STEEP TRAILS 



be the gatherings on the mountains of pieces 

 of people out of repair! 



How sadly unlike the whole-hearted ongoing 

 of the seeker after gold is this partial, compul- 

 sory mountaineering! — as if the mountain 

 treasuries contained nothing better than gold! 

 Up the mountains they go, high-heeled and 

 high-hatted, laden like Christian with morti- 

 fications and mortgages of divers sorts and 

 degrees, some suffering from the sting of bad 

 bargains, others exulting in good ones; hunters 

 and fishermen with gun and rod and leggins; 

 blythe and jolly troubadours to whom all 

 Shasta is romance; poets singing their prayers; 

 the weak and the strong, unable or unwilling 

 to bear mental taxation. But, whatever the 

 motive, all will be in some measiu-e benefited. 

 None may wholly escape the good of Nature, 

 however imperfectly exposed to her blessings. 

 The minister will not preach a perfectly flat 

 and sedimentary sermon after climbing a snowy 

 peak; and the fair play and tremendous impar- 

 tiality of Natiu-e, so telUngly displayed, will 

 siu-ely aflfect the after pleadings of the lawyer. 

 Fresh air at least will get into everybody, and 

 the cares of mere business will be quenched 

 like the fires of a sinking ship. 



Possibly a branch railroad may some time be 

 built to the summit of Moimt Shasta like the 



48 



