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Locusts and Wild Honey by John Burroughs
page 135 of 204 (66%)
with an erect mane of balsam fir.

These mountains are steed-like in other respects: any timid and
vacillating course with them is sure to get you into trouble. One must
strike out boldly, and not be disturbed by the curveting and shying;
the valley you want lies squarely behind them, but farther off than you
think, and if you do not go for it resolutely, you will get bewildered
and the mountain will play you a trick.

I may say that Aaron and I kept a tight rein and a good pace till we
struck a water-course on the other side, and that we clattered down it
with no want of decision till it emptied into a larger stream which we
knew must be the East Branch. An abandoned fishpole lay on the stones,
marking the farthest point reached by some fisherman. According to our
reckoning, we were five or six miles above the settlement, with a good
depth of primitive woods all about us.

We kept on down the stream, now and then pausing at a likely place to
take some trout for dinner, and with an eye out for a good camping-
ground. Many of the trout were full of ripe spawn, and a few had
spawned, the season with them being a little later than on the stream
we had left, perhaps because the water was less cold. Neither had the
creek here any such eventful and startling career. It led, indeed,
quite a humdrum sort of life under the roots and fallen treetops and
among the loose stones. At rare intervals it beamed upon us from some
still reach or dark cover, and won from us our best attention in
return.

The day was quite spent before we had pitched our air-woven tent and
prepared our dinner, and we gathered boughs for our bed in the
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