course he told me a lot of lies. A casual eye could see no change in
the recluse: his head does not hang down on his breast, his locks are
not long and matted, his sighs do not resound through the primeval
forest and scare away the panthers. When you look closely at him, or
have been with him long enough, you can see that he is a little thinner,
a little older, a little less inclined to chaff--as well he may be.
Chaffing is a bad habit anyway, and was his worst fault when I was here
before; so far, his woes have improved him. He met me cordially enough,
but with no wild demonstration: he seems no nearer insanity than last
May. He asked after Mabel, Jane, and the children, but not after
Clarice; nor did I mention her, of course. It was not a very pleasant
evening, for each of us was watching the other to see what he would say.
He knows as well as I do that the enemy has troops in reserve: he is not
so unsuspicious as he was. He did not ventilate his theories to any
great extent, nor did I see my way to expound my great scheme for the
Ascertainment of Truth: the ground ought to be in good condition before
you drop seed of such value upon it.

If I thought things would go on like this, I should begin to grumble;
but we shall probably get broken in to each other in a day or two, and
then I can thaw him out. We talked glittering generalities for a
while--the weather, and the war prospects abroad, and the chances of
getting deer on the other side of a mountain not far away--like any
commonplace boobies at a county fair. Then he proposed for next morning
a stream I had not seen, some distance off, which would necessitate a
start before daybreak: so I pretended to be tired from the journey, and
we turned in early.

XXV.

A WILD BROOK.

Next day we went some miles along a lonely road, and then through the
fields of an abandoned farm. I don't wonder they abandoned it; I am only
sorry for the poor wretch who once cherished the delusive dream of
scratching a living there; when he died or went back to Canada, he
couldn't well be worse off. Nature had but partially reclaimed the land,
and we tramped through weeds and grass up to our middle; one might as
well be wading a fair-sized river. You have no idea of the dew up here
till you have tried it. After a while we struck into the woods, and such
woods you never saw--at least I hope so for your sake. Rocks, big and
little, generally of the most unchristian shapes--not pict