The Foot-path Way

For a complete list of corrections made, please see the end of this document . THE FOOT-PATH WAY BY BRADFORD TORREY Jog on, jog on, the foot-path way, And merrily hent the stile-a: A merry heart goes all the day, Your sad tires in a mile-a. The Winter's Tale BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY The Riverside Press, Cambridge 1893 Copyright, 1892, By BRADFORD TORREY. All rights reserved. SECOND EDITION. The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A. Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton & Co. CONTENTS. PAGE June in Franconia. 1 December Out-of-Doors. 36 Dyer's Hollow. 67 Five Days on Mount Mansfield. 90 A Widow and Twins. 111 The Male Ruby-Throat. 135 Robin Roosts. 153 The Passing of the Birds. 176 A Great Blue Heron. 197 Flowers and Folks. 205 In Praise of the Weymouth Pine. 232 Index. 243 THE FOOT-PATH WAY. JUNE IN FRANCONIA. ToC "Herbs, fruits, and flowers, Walks, and the melody of birds." Milton. There were six of us, and we had the entire hotel, I may almost say the entire valley, to ourselves. If the verdict of the villagers could have been taken, we should, perhaps, have been voted a queer set, familiar as dwellers in Franconia are with the sight of idle tourists,— "Rapid and gay, as if the earth were air, And they were butterflies to wheel about Long as the summer lasted." We were neither "rapid" nor "gay," and it was still only the first week of June; if we were summer boarders, therefore, we must be of some unusual early-blooming variety. First came a lady, in excellent repute among the savants of Europe and America as an entomologist, but better known to the general public as a writer of stories. With her, as companion and assistant, was a doctor of laws, who is also a newspaper proprietor, a voluminous author, an art connoisseur, and many things beside. They had turned their backs thus unseasonably upon the metropolis, and in this pleasant out-of-the-way corner were devoting themselves to one absorbing pursuit,—the pursuit of moths. On their daily drives, two or three insect nets dangled conspicuously from the carriage,—the footman, thrifty soul, was never backward to take a hand,—and evening after evening the hotel piazza was illuminated till midnight with lamps and lanterns, while these enthusiasts waved the same white nets about, gathering in geometries, noctuids, sphinges, and Heaven knows what else,…