uresque, but
sprawling; underbrush wherever it had a chance to grow: you could
scarcely find a foot of smooth ground. The worst of it was the way the
trees lay around loose. The region had not been burned over, at least
not for many years; but it did seem to have been cursed, as if Adam's
fall had been enacted there. The monarchs of the forest, for countless
generations, had indulged a depraved propensity to fall also, and across
each other in all possible directions. It was such an abattis as I trust
our men, in the war, never had to fight their way through: here it was
bad enough without anybody to shoot at you. I would go rods out of my
way to get around a great bowlder, and come upon a conglomeration of big
trees which had tumbled about till they made a Virginia fence fifteen
feet high. Climbing is all very well in its way, but I don't like this
kind. The queer thing was that they had not the sense to decay and
crumble; the wood was mostly sound enough to be standing yet. I asked
Hartman why they did not haul off all this timber, and he said there was
no place to haul it to, nor any way to haul it, nor anybody to do the
hauling; that fuel was cheap, and the few inhabitants had plenty nearer
home; and besides, that it was most ornamental and useful where it
was--it afforded exercise to the bodily and spiritual muscles of any
anglers from the city who might come that way like me. "You forget the
characteristics of this region, which are its advantages in my view. You
can get turnpike roads, and teams, and sawmills, nearer home. You come
up here to be away from the busy haunts, you know, and to see Nature in
her native purity. This stream that I am taking you to is very seldom
visited."

"I should think it would be, if this is the way to get to it," I said,
as I fell over a root and barked my nose and knees. "What the deuce did
we come to such a blanked place for?"

"For trout: you said they were what you wanted. The less fishermen, the
more fish. This is the best brook in the county, because it is the least
accessible. I rarely come here myself: I've been saving it up this year
for you."

We went on, our progress marked by frequent delays and accidents; that
it was marked by no profanity was due merely to Jim's reticence and to
my exceptional manners and principles. After what seemed to me about
twenty miles--though he said it was only one and a half--of this
singularly forsaken country, he cried, "Look out now, or