A WEEK ON MOUNT WASHINGTON 37 



Your traveling companion has seen Mm here 

 before, though she was not present on that mem- 

 , orable occasion, and presently you are being in- 

 troduced to him and his friends — a metropolitan 

 clergyman, a university professor, and a younger 

 man, with whose excellent work in your own line 

 you are already acquainted. 



Anon the company breaks up, — the pedes- 

 trians are ofE for an afternoon excursion, — and 

 you step out upon the platform to look about 

 you. Against the railing are two men, one of 

 them with what seems to be a " collecting gun " 

 in his hand. " An ornithologist," you say to 

 yourself, and at the word you begin edging to- 

 ward him. A remark or two about the weather 

 and you ask him point-blank if he is collecting 

 birds. No, he answers, his weapon is a rifle, and 

 he shows you the cartridge. He has brought it 

 along to shoot squirrels with. You wonder why 

 any one should think it worth while to carry a 

 gun over the nine miles of the Crawford path 

 for so trifling a use ; but that is none of your 

 business, and just then the other man speaks up 

 to say that his companion is a botanist, while he 

 himself is a "bird man." This is interesting 

 (the second ornithologist within an hour), and 

 you set about comparing notes. Did he hear 

 anything of the Bicknell thrushes and the Hud- 



