Part 4 (2/2)
”Then that's what I heard nibbling by my head I shan't sleep a wink! Do they bite?”
”No, they nibble; scarcely ever take a full bite out”
”It's horrid!”
Towards o out; the blankets will slip down Anxiety begins to be expressed about the dawn
”What time does the sun rise?”
”Awful early Did you sleep?
”Not a wink And you?”
”In spots I'h”
”See thaton the Gothics!
I'd no idea it was so cold: all the first part of the night I was roasted”
”What were they talking about all night?”
When the party crawls out to the early breakfast, after it has washed its faces in the lake, it is disorganized, but cheerful nobody admits htful It is the fresh air all night that invigorates; or uides have erected a table of spruce bark, with benches at the sides; so that breakfast is taken in form It is served on tin plates and oak chips After breakfast begins the day's work
Itin the lake, or fishi+ng for trout in some stream two or three miles distant
nobody can stir far fro, bowers are built novel-reading begins, worsted work appears, cards are shuffled and dealt The day passes in absolute freedoht when the expeditions return, the camp resumes its animation Adventures are recounted, every stateued Everybody has becohbor with like instinct Society getting resolved into its eleone
Whilst the hilarious party are at supper, a drop or two of rain falls
The head guide is appealed to Is it going to rain? He says it does rain But will it be a rainy night? The guide goes down to the lake, looks at the sky, and concludes that, if the wind shi+fts a p'intwhat sort of weather we shall have Meantime the drops patter thicker on the leaves overhead, and the leaves, in turn, pass the water down to the table; the sky darkens; the wind rises; there is a kind of shi+ver in the woods; and we scud away into the shanty, taking the re it as best we can The rain increases The fire sputters and furound is wet We cannot step outdoors without getting a drenching Like sheep, we are penned in the little hut, where no one can stand erect The rain swirls into the open front, and wets the bottom of the blankets The suides at length conclude that it is going to be daood spirits; and it is later than the night before e crawl under our blankets, sure this time of a sound sleep, lulled by the stor on the bark roof How much better off we are than s At theoff to sleep, somebody unfortunately notes a drop of water on his face; this is followed by another drop; in an instant a stream is established He moves his head to a dry place Scarcely has he done so, when he feels a da his hand outside, he finds a puddle of water soaking through his blanket By this time, somebody inquires if it is possible that the roof leaks Oneinto his ear The roof appears to be a discri sieve Those who are dry see no need of such a fuss The man in the corner spreads his uhbor In the darkness there is recriests that the rubber blankets be passed out, and spread over the roof The in that a shower-bath is no worse than a tub-bath The rain continues to soak down The fire is only half alive The bedding is damp Some sit up, if they can find a dry spot to sit on, and smoke Heartless observations areopens cheerless The sky is still leaking, and so is the shanty The guides bring in a half-cooked breakfast The roof is patched up
There are reviving signs of breaking away, delusive signs that create momentary exhilaration Even if the storm clears, the woods are soaked
There is no chance of stirring The world is only ten feet square
This life, without responsibility or clean clothes,as the reader desires There are, those ould like to live in this free fashi+on forever, taking rain and sun as heaven pleases; and there are some souls so constituted that they cannot existthe party altogether, from one cause or another it is likely to strike camp sooner than was intended And the stricken caht The woods have been despoiled; the stuly; the bushes are scorched; the pine-leaf-strewn earth is trodden into round is littered with all the unsightly dibris of a hand-to-hand life; the dismantled shanty is a shabby object; the charred and blackened logs, where the fire blazed, suggest the extinction of fa upon Nature, and he can save his self-respect only by in forests
And move to them he will, the next season, if not this For he who has once experienced the fascination of the woods-life never escapes its entice remains but its charm
VII A WILDERNESS ROMANCE
At the south end of Keene Valley, in the Adirondacks, stands Noon Mark, a shapely peak thirty-five hundred feet above the sea, which, with the aid of the sun, tells the Keene people when it is time to eat dinner
Froreat stretch of forest little trodden, and out of whose bosohts on a still day the loud reen rises away to the south and southeast into the rocky heights of Dix's Peak and Nipple Top,--the latter a local name which neither the mountain nor the fastidious tourist is able to shake off Indeed, so long as the mountain keeps its present shape as seen froet on without this name