I think “Excelsior” is pretty good stuff in the way of depicting mountain-climbing, and I always want to cheer that young chap as he fights his way toward the top.  He could have stopped down there in the valley, where everything was snug and comfortable, but he chose to climb so as to have a look around.  I thought of him one day at Scheidegg.  There we were, nearly a mile and a half above sea-level, shivering in the midst of ice and snow in mid-July, but we had a look around that made us glad in spite of the cold.  As Virgil says:  “It will be pleasing to remember these things hereafter.”  I have often noticed that the old soldiers seem to recall the hardest marches, the most severe battles, and the greatest privations more vividly than their every-day experiences.

So the mountain-climbing that I have been doing with my boys and girls stands out like a cameo in my retrospective view.  Sometimes we looked back toward the valley, and it seemed so peaceful and beautiful that it caused the mountain before us to seem ominous.  At such times, when courage seemed to be oozing, we needed to reinforce one another with words of cheer.  The steep places seemed perilously rough at times, and I could hear a stifled sob somewhere in my little company.  At such times I would urge myself along at a more rapid pace, that I might reach a higher level and call out to them in heartening tones to hurry on up to our resting-place.  We would often sing a bit in the midst of our resting, and when the sob had been changed to a laugh I felt that life was well worth while.

As we toiled upward I was ever on the lookout for a patch of sunlight in the midst of the shadows that it might lure them on.  And it never failed.  Like magic that sun-spot always quickened their pace, and they often hailed it with a shout.  They would even race toward that sunny place, their weariness all gone.  When a bird sang we always stopped to listen; and the song acted upon them as the music of a band acts upon drooping soldiers.  On the next stage of the journey their eyes sparkled, and their step was more elastic.  When one stumbled and fell, we helped him to his feet and praised his effort, wholly ignoring the fall.  Sometimes one would become discouraged and would want to drop out of the company and return home.  When this happened, we would gather about him and tell him how good it was to have him with us, how he helped us on, and how sorry we should be to have him absent when we reached the top.  When he decided to keep on with us, we gave a mighty cheer and then went whistling on our upward way.