"Well, get busy, and for fear that we might disturb you, we'll go off somewhere and sit in the shade."
We were all as hungry as wolves when Hank at last called us to dinner and it tasted fine, although my piece was burnt a little.
"I don't know how you boys feel about it," said Mr. Norton, after the dishes had been washed and put away, "but I should like to camp here for a couple of days. We'll do just as you say, however. Perhaps you have had enough."
We all had been thinking the same thing and told him so.
"All right. We'll find a good place for our tents and go into camp. It will give us a chance to wash out some clothes in the river and to explore this delightful wilderness."
We had all kinds of fun practising our Scout stunts, exploring, playing Indian, and things like that. One of the prettiest places that we found was a ravine, where two cascades, twins, tumbled over rocky ledges; then came together and raced down the mountain. I don't mean that they were as pretty as Peck's Falls, above our cave. They don't make any finer places than that, only, of course, Niagara Falls are bigger. But they were worth looking at, just the same.
I am going to put down just how to get there, in case somebody should want to see them. You probably wouldn't walk over the mountain, as we did, because it takes so much time, but would go through Hoosac Tunnel. After you have gone through from the North Adams side and the train stops to take off the electric engine and put a steam one on, get off and walk back to the mouth of the tunnel. Then, when you have come to the mountain, climb up a sort of path, following the brook, and after a little you will come to the twin cascades. We thought of camping there at first, but couldn't find any good place for our tents.
Except for the train passing and the engineer leaning out of the cab window, we seemed out of the world, although we were not more than ten miles from home, in a straight line. The train was like company, and when we were around near we always watched it out of sight.
That is a queer little railroad which comes down from Wilmington and Readsboro, Vermont, as far as Hoosac Tunnel station. Mr. Norton told us all about it. It is what they call a narrow gauge railroad. That means that the rails are closer together than on most railroads, and on that account regular cars cannot run on it. Its rails are three and a half feet apart, while on a regular railroad they are four feet, eight and one-half inches apart. It runs along one bank of Deerfield River, a few feet above the water. The river is mostly stones in summer, with water in between.
The day after we camped there Skinny, Bill, Benny, Hank, and I sat on a big stone, opposite our camp, waiting to see the train go by. The other boys had gone with Mr. Norton part way up the mountain, looking for berries for our supper.