trip.

The distance over is one hundred and fifty miles right across mountains
and valleys, and there will be only a faint trail to guide us, and I am
anticipating great delight in such a long horseback ride through a wild
country. We will have everything for our comfort, too. Faye will be in
command, and that means much, and a young contract surgeon, who has been
recently appointed, will go with us, and our Chinese cook will go also.
I have always wanted to take a trip of this kind, and know that it
will be like one long picnic, only much nicer. I never cared for real
picnics--they always have so much headache with them. We have very
little to do for the march as our camp outfit is in unusually fine
condition. After Charlie's "flixee" so much mess-chest china, Faye had
made to order a complete set for four people of white agate ware with
blue bands. We have two sets of plates, vegetable dishes, cups and
saucers, egg cups, soup plates, and a number of small pieces. The plates
and dishes, also platters, can be folded together, and consequently
require very little room, and it is a great comfort to know that these
things are unbreakable, and that we will not be left without plates for
the table when we get in the wilds, and the ware being white looks very
nice, not in the least like tin. It came yesterday, just in time.

The two squirrels I carried to the woods and turned loose. I could
not take them, and I would not leave them to be neglected perhaps. The
"Tiger" was still a tiger, and as wild and fierce as when he came from
the saw-mill, and was undoubtedly an old squirrel not to be taught new
tricks. The flying thing was wholly lacking in sense. I scattered pounds
of nuts all about and hope that the two little animals will not suffer.
The Chinaman insisted upon our taking those chickens! He goes out
every now and then and gives them big pans of food and talks to them in
Chinese with a voice and expression that makes one almost want to weep,
because the chickens have to be left behind.

We are to start on the eighteenth, and on the nineteenth we had expected
to give a dinner--a very nice one, too. I am awfully sorry that we could
not have given it before going away, for there are so many things to
do here during the winter. The doctor has had no experience whatever in
camp life, and we are wondering how he will like it. He looks like a man
who would much prefer a nice little rocking-chair in a nice little room.

CAMP