them, and if I did, I should not hand
them over to the mercies of the intrusive young men from the studios and
the bachelors' chambers. I wish them good digestion of their goulasch:
for those that are to climb, I wish that they may keep the generous and
faithful spirit of friendly poverty; for those that are to go on to the
end in fruitless struggle and in futile hope, I wish for them that that
end may come in some gentle and happier region lying to the westward of
that black tide that ebbs and flows by night and day along the Bowery
Way.

THE STORY OF A PATH

In one of his engaging essays Mr. John Burroughs tells of meeting an
English lady in Holyoke, Mass., who complained to him that there were no
foot-paths for her to walk on, whereupon the poet-naturalist was moved
to an eloquent expression of his grief over America's inferiority in the
foot-path line to the "mellow England" which in one brief month had won
him for her own. Now I know very little of Holyoke, Mass., of my own
knowledge. As a lecture-town I can say of it that its people are polite,
but extremely undemonstrative, and that the lecturer is expected to
furnish the refreshments. It is quite likely that the English lady was
right, and that there are no foot-paths there.

I wish to say, however, that I know the English lady. I know her--many,
many of her--and I have met her a-many times. I know the enchanted
fairyland in which her wistful memory loves to linger. Often and often
have I watched her father's wardian-case grow into "papa's hot-houses;"
the plain brick house that he leases, out Notting Hill way, swell into
"our family mansion," and the cottage that her family once occupied at
Stoke Wigglesworth change itself into "the country place that papa had
to give up because it took so much of his time to see that it was
properly kept up." And long experience in this direction enables me to
take that little remark about the foot-paths, and to derive from it a
large amount of knowledge about Holyoke and its surroundings that I
should not have had of my own getting, for I have never seen Holyoke
except by night, nor am I like to see it again.

From that brief remark I know these things about Holyoke: It is
surrounded by a beautiful country, with rolling hills and a generally
diversified landscape. There are beautiful green fields, I am sure.
There is a fine river somewhere about, and I think there must be
water-falls and a pretty little creek. Th