Produced by Chris Curnow, Joseph Cooper, Michael Zeug, Lisa Reigel, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net Transcriber's Notes: Variations in spelling and hyphenation have been left as in the original. No typographical corrections have been made. Words in italics in the original are surrounded by _underscores_. Words in bold in the original are surrounded by =equal signs=. +--------------------------------------------------------------+ | Books by Mr. Torrey. | | | | | | BIRDS IN THE BUSH. 16mo, $1.25. | | A RAMBLER'S LEASE. 16mo, $1.25. | | | | | | HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO. | | BOSTON AND NEW YORK. | | | +--------------------------------------------------------------+ A RAMBLER'S LEASE BY BRADFORD TORREY I have known many laboring men that have got good estates in this valley.--BUNYAN Sunbeams, shadows, butterflies, and birds.--WORDSWORTH BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY The Riverside Press, Cambridge 1892 Copyright, 1889, BY BRADFORD TORREY. _All rights reserved._ _The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A._ Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton & Co. PREFATORY NOTE. The writer of this little book has found so much pleasure in other men's woods and fields that he has come to look upon himself as in some sort the owner of them. Their lawful possessors will not begrudge him this feeling, he believes, nor take it amiss if he assumes, even in this public way, to hold _a rambler's lease_ of their property. Should it please them to do so, they may accept the papers herein contained as a kind of return, the best he knows how to offer, for the many favors, alike unproffered and unasked, which he has received at their hands. His private opinion is that the world belongs to those who enjoy it; and taking this view of the matter, he cannot help thinking that some of his more prosperous neighbors would do well, in legal phrase, to perfect their titles. He would gladly be of service to them in this regard. CONTENTS. PAGE MY REAL ESTATE 1