22 NEW HAMPSHIRE 



way to the bare ridge connecting the South Peak 

 — up which I had been trudging all the fore- 

 noon — and the main summit. This, with its 

 little hotel, that looked as if it were in danger of 

 sliding off the mountain northward, was straight 

 before me across the ravine, a long but easy mile 

 away. 



On the ridge I found myself all at once in 

 something like a gale of ice-cold wind. Who 

 could have believed it ? It was well I had 

 brought a sweater ; and squatting behind a lucky- 

 clump of low evergreens, I wormed my way into 

 what is certainly the most comfortable of all gar- 

 ments for such a place, — as good, at least, as 

 two overcoats. Now let the wind whistle, espe- 

 cially as it was at my back, and was bearing 

 me triumphantly up the slope. So I thought, 

 bravely enough, till J;he trail took a sudden 

 shift, and the gale caught me on another tack. 

 Then I sang out of the other corner of my 

 mouth, as I used to hear country people say. 

 I no longer boasted, but saved my breath for 

 better use. 



Wind or no wind, it is an exhilaration to walk 

 here above the world. Once a bird chirps to me 

 timidly from the knee-wood close by. I answer 

 him, and out peeps a white-throat. " You here ! " 

 he says ; " so early ! " At my feet is plenty of 



