oice of
enlightened woodcraft, they manage to fry trout and make tea without
scorch or creosote, and the supper is a decided improvement on the
dinner. But the dishes are piled away as before, without washing.
Then follows an hour of busy work, bringing wood to camp and packing
browse. The wood is sufficient; but the browse is picked, or cut, all
too coarse, and there is only enough of it to make the camp look green
and pleasant--not enough to rest weary shoulders and backs. But, they
are sound on the bonfire. They pile on the wood in the usual way,
criss-cross and haphazard. It makes a grand fire, and lights up the
forest for fifty yards around, and the tired youngsters turn in. Having
the advantage of driving a team to the camping ground, they are well
supplied with blankets and robes. They ought to sleep soundly, but they
don't. The usual drawbacks of a first night in camp are soon manifested
in uneasy twistings and turnings, grumbling at stubs, nots, and sticks,
that utterly ignore conformity with the angles of the human frame. But
at last, tired nature asserts her supremacy, and they sleep. Sleep
soundly, for a couple of hours; when the bonfire, having reached the
point of disintegration, suddenly collapses with a sputtering and
crackling that brings them to their head's antipodes, and four dazed,
sleepy faces look out with a bewildered air, to see what has caused the
rumpus. All take a hand in putting the brands together and rearranging
the fire, which burns better than at first; some sleepy talk, one or
two feeble attempts at a smoke, and they turn in again. But, there is
not an hour during the remainder of the night in which some one is not
pottering about the fire.
The O.W., who has abided by his blanket-bag all night quietly taking
in the fun--rouses out the party at 4 A.M. For two of them are to fish
Asaph Run with bait, and the other two are to try the riffles of Marsh
Creek with the fly. As the wood is all burned to cinders and glowing
coals, there is no chance for a smoky fire; and, substituting coffee
for tea, the breakfast is a repetition of the supper.
By sunrise the boys are off, and the O.W. has the camp to himself. He
takes it leisurely, gets up a neat breakfast of trout, bread, butter,
and coffee, cleans and puts away his dishes, has a smoke, and picks up
the camp axe. Selecting a bushy hemlock fifteen inches across, he lets
it down in as many minutes, trims it to the very tip, piles the limbs
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