The claims of
society however began to interfere with my geological and
other lessons.
A few days after his brother's arrival, the doctor had been
carried off by a party of gentlemen who were going back in the
mountains to fish in the White Lakes. I was left to the usual
summer delights of the place; which indeed to me were
numberless; began with the echo of the morning gun, (or
before) and ended not till the three taps of the drum at
night. The cadets had gone into camp by this time; and the
taps of the drum were quite near, as well as the shrill sweet
notes of the fife at reveille and tattoo. The camp itself was
a great pleasure to me; and at guard-mounting or parade I
never failed to be in my place. Only to sit in the rear of the
guard tents and watch the morning sunlight on the turf, and on
the hills over the river, and shining down the camp alleys,
was a rich satisfaction. Mrs. Sandford laughed at me; her
husband said it was "natural," though I am sure he did not
understand it a bit; but the end of all was, that I was left
very often to go alone down the little path to the guard-tents
among the crowd that twice a day poured out there from our
hotel and met the crowd that came up from Cozzens's hotel
below.
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