* * * * *


LIFE IN THE OPEN AIR.

BY THE AUTHOR OF "CECIL DREEME" AND "JOHN BRENT."

KATAHDIN AND THE PENOBSCOT.


CHAPTER X.

RIPOGENUS.


Ripogenus is a tarn, a lovely oval tarn, within a rim of forest and
hill; and there behold, _O gioja!_ at its eastern end, stooping forward
and filling the sphere, was Katahdin, large and alone.

But we must hasten, for day wanes, and we must see and sketch this
cloudless summit from _terra firma_. A mile and half-way down the lake,
we landed at the foot of a grassy hill-side, where once had been a
lumberman's station and hay-farm. It was abandoned now, and lonely in
that deeper sense in which widowhood is lonelier than celibacy, a home
deserted lonelier than a desert. Tumble-down was the never-painted
house; ditto its three barns. But, besides a camp, there were two things
to be had here,--one certain, one possible, probable even. The view,
that was an inevitable certainty; Iglesias would bag that as his share
of the plunder of Ripogenus. For my bagging, bears, perchance, awaited.