There stood my rifle in one corner of the room, and my fishing rods in the other.  The sight of these settled the matter.  “I will go to the North,” I said.

“Go to the North!” said Mrs. H——.  “Do tell me if you’ve got another of your old hunting and fishing fits on you again?”

“Yes,” I replied, “I’ve felt it coming on for a week, and I’ve got it bad.”

“Very well,” said my wife, “if the fit is on you, there’s no use in remonstrating; your valise will be ready by the morning train.”  And so the matter was settled.

But I must have a companion, somebody to talk to and with, somebody who could appreciate the beauties of nature; who loved the old woods, the wilderness, and all the wild things pertaining to them; to whom the forests, the lakes, and tall mountains, the rivers and streams, would recall the long past; to whom the forest songs and sounds would bring back the memories of old, and make him “a boy again.”  So I sallied out to find him.  I had scarcely traversed a square, when I met my friend, the doctor, with carpet bag in hand, on his way to the depot.

“Whither away, my friend?” I inquired, as we shook hands.

“Into the country,” he replied.

“Very well, but where?”

“Into the country,” he repeated, “don’t you comprehend?  Into the country, by the first train; anywhere, everywhere, all along shore.”

“Go with me,” said I, “for a month.”

“A month!  Bless your simple soul, every patient I’ve got will be well in less than half that time; but let them, I’ll be avenged on them another time.  But where do you go?”

“To my old haunts in the North,” I replied.

     “To follow the stag to his slip’ry crag,
     And to chase the bounding roe.”

“But,” said he, “I’ve no rifle.”

“I’ve got four.”

“I’ve no fishing rod.”

“I’ve half a dozen at your service.”

“Give me your hand,” said he; “I’m with you.”  And so the doctor was booked.

“Suppose,” said the doctor, “we beat up Smith and Spalding, and take them along.  Smith has got one of his old fits of the hypo.  He sent for me to-day, and.  I prescribed a frugal diet and the country.  Wild game, and bleeding by the musquitoes, will do him good.  Spalding is entitled to a holiday, for he’s working himself into dyspepsia in this hot weather.”

“Just the thing;” I replied, and we started to find Smith and Spalding.  We found them, and it was settled that they should go with us for a month among the mountains.  Everybody knows Smith, the good-natured, eccentric Smith; Smith the bachelor, who has an income greatly beyond his moderate expenditures, and enough of capital to spoil, as he says, the orphan children of his sister.  By way of saving them from being thrown upon the cold world with a fortune, he declares he will spend every dollar of it himself, simply out of regard for them.  But Smith