THE TRAIL 21 1 



remote; it lies in silent places, and pursues the 

 unknown. You may learn a road, but no one 

 ever really learns a trail. Always it is new, 

 unknown, unguessed. 



If you go by the King's Highway there are 

 many methods. The old family horse, the pair, 

 your ^'coach and four," and all varieties of the 

 ^'devil-wagon." You may even go by stage. On 

 the trail there is but one way — the outside of a 

 horse, which, after all, is the best thing for the 

 inside of a man. Long ago I discovered that. I 

 shall never need springs and baths when I am ''off 

 my feed." Ten days on the trail always puts me 

 where I was twenty years ago. When my waist 

 approaches too nearly the measure of my chest, 

 when my last year's clothes set too snugly; when 

 my brain is stale, and the cobwebs gather, and 

 the think- works clog; when I am tired, and the 

 world is tired of me — no doctors — no health resorts 

 — just the trail. Believe me, if you try it once 

 you will never use medicine again. 



You carry your hotel behind your saddle. Your 

 kitchen outfit is a lard-pail, its cover the frying- 



