18 NEW HAMPSHIRE 



are marked off by guideboards, so that the new- 

 comer need not fall into the usual disheartening 

 mistake of supposing himself almost at the top 

 before he has gone halfway. As for the first 

 mile, which must measure near a mile and a half, 

 and which ends just above the " second brook " 

 (every mountain path has its natural waymarks), 

 I had been over it twice within the last few days, 

 so that the edge of my curiosity was dulled ; but, 

 with one excuse and another, I managed easily 

 enough to give it its allotted hour. For one 

 thing, a hairy woodpecker detained me five or ten 

 minutes, putting such tremendous vigor into his 

 hammering that I was positively certain (with 

 a shade of uncertainty, nevertheless, such as aU. 

 "observers" will understand; there is nothing 

 so true as a paradox) that he must be a pileatus, 

 tni at last he showed himself. " Well, well," said 

 I, " guesswork is a poor dependence." It was 

 well I had stayed by. The forest was so nearly 

 deserted, so little animated, that I felt under ob- 

 ligation to the fellow for every stroke of his mal- 

 let. Though a man goes to the wood for silence, 

 his ear craves some natural noises, — enough, at 

 least, to make the stillness audible. 



The second mile is of steeper grade than the 

 first, and toward the close brought me suddenly 

 to a place unlike anything that had gone before. 



