FOLKS in our town think that white streaks down the face of Greylock do not improve his looks any, but to us boys they seem like scars won in battle. We feel like cheering some mornings, when we see him fighting to break away from storm clouds which wrap him around.
At first we can see nothing but clouds from where we stand on Bob's Hill. Then, the clouds begin to lift a little and Peck's Falls woods gradually come into view. A little later the very tiptop of the mountain begins to show, floating like an island in an ocean of mist. While we look, the clouds fall away still more, making the island larger and larger, and the bottom mists roll up the wooded sides of the hill.
In a few minutes old Greylock throws them off altogether and stands there, with his scars showing, except that across his face a narrow cloud sometimes hangs like a billowy screen, giving him, Ma says, a look of majesty as if God was living there.
Anyhow, we boys can't help cheering when the mountain shakes off his bonds and stands forth like a giant Scout, telling us to be cheerful and brave and reverent and all that.
The great rains did more than scar the face of Greylock. They kept us from starting on our trip at the time we had planned to go.
"Wait until the woods dry out," Mr. Norton told us. "The roads are too muddy now to think of starting, and you couldn't have any fun if the woods were wet. A week of sunshine will fix things all right."
We hated to wait, but there was plenty to do getting ready, so that the time did not seem long.
"We'll carry no firearms," he went on. "Guns seemed necessary when this was a wilderness, but we are going over a fairly well traveled road. Scouts do not believe in wanton killing, anyway."
"How about bears?" asked Skinny, anxiously.
"I have made careful inquiries and have not found anybody who has seen a bear along that road in years. I know you found one near the Savoy road, or he found you, but that cub was as badly frightened as you were. Should any of us see a bear, which is not at all likely, I don't believe there is anything in Scout law to keep us from running one way while the bear is running another."