upon those who pace their five miles in the teeth of a north wind, and
profess to come home all the livelier and better for it, as guilty of a
venial hypocrisy. It is in nature that after such an exercise the bones
should ache and the flesh tremble; and I suspect that these harmless
pretenders are all the while paying a secret penalty for their bravado.
With a pleasant end in view, or with cheerful companionship, walking is
far from being the worst thing in life; though doubtless a truly candid
person must confess that he would rather ride under the same
circumstances. Yet it is certain that some sort of recreation is necessary
after a day spent within doors; and one is really obliged nowadays to take
a little walk instead of medicine; for one's doctor is sure to have a
mania on the subject, and there is no more getting pills or powders out of
him for a slight indigestion than if they had all been shot away at the
rebels during the war. For this reason I sometimes go upon a pedestrian
tour, which is of no great extent in itself, and which I moreover modify
by keeping always within sound of the horse-car bells, or easy reach of
some steam-car station.

I fear that I should find these rambles dull, but that their utter lack of
interest amuses me. I will be honest with the reader, though, and any
Master Pliable is free to forsake me at this point; for I cannot promise
to be really livelier than my walk. There is a Slough of Despond in full
view, and not a Delectable Mountain to be seen, unless you choose so to
call the high lands about Waltham, which we shall behold dark blue against
the western sky presently. As I sally forth upon Benicia Street, the whole
suburb of Charlesbridge stretches about me,--a vast space upon which I can
embroider any fancy I like as I saunter along. I have no associations with
it, or memories of it, and, at some seasons, I might wander for days in
the most frequented parts of it, and meet hardly any one I know. It is
not, however, to these parts that I commonly turn, but northward, up a