sober at Division!"

Next night at ten o'clock, or more
Or less, by Muggins's guessing,
He went to bolt the outside door,
And lo! the key was missing.
He muttered, scratched his head, and quick
He came to this decision:
"Here 's something new in 'rithmetic,
Subtraction by Division!

"And then," said he, "it puzzles me,
I cannot get the right on 't,
Why temperance talk and whiskey spree
Alike should make a night on 't.
D 'ye give it up?" In Muggins's voice
Was something like derision--
"It 's just because between the boys
And girls there 's no Division!"

[Illustration: BEARCAMP HOUSE, WEST OSSIPEE, N. H.]

Whittier's favorite way of enjoying his annual vacation among the
mountains was to go with a party of his relatives and neighbors, and
take possession of a little inn at West Ossipee, known as the "Bearcamp
House." Sturtevant's, at Centre Harbor, was another of his resorts. At
these places his party filled nearly every room. It was made up largely
of young people, full of frolic and love of adventure. The aged poet
could not climb with them to the tops of the mountains; but he watched
their going and coming with lively interest, and of an evening listened
to their reports and laughed over the effervescence of their
enthusiasm. Two young farmers of West Ossipee, brothers named Knox,
acted as guides to Chocorua. They had some success as bear hunters, and
supplied the inn with bear steaks. One day in September, 1876, the
Knox brothers took a party of seven of Whittier's friends to the top of
Chocorua, where they camped for the night among the traps that had been
set for the bears. They heard the growling of the bears in the night,
so the young ladies reported, with other blood-curdling incidents. Soon
after the Knox brothers gave a husking at their barn,[7] and the whole
Bearcamp party was invited. Whittier wrote a poem for the occasion, and
induced Lucy Larcom to read it for him as from an unknown author,
although he sat among the huskers. It was entitled:--

HOW THEY CLIMBED CHOCORUA

Unto gallant deeds belong
Poet's rhyme and singer's song;
Nor for lack of pen or tongue
Should their praises be unsung,
Who climbed Chocorua!

O full long shall they remember
That wild nightfall of September,
When aweary of their tramp
They set up their canvas camp
In the hemlocks of