, I think, occurred to me before, but I saw presently there was
nothing else for it. A little later I was following Eddie, cringing from
the cold, pelting rain, limping gingerly over sharp sticks and pebbles
to the water's edge. The lake was shallow near the shore which meant a
fearful period of wading before taking the baptismal plunge that would
restore one's general equilibrium. It required courage, too, for the
water was icy--courage to wade out to the place, and once there, to make
the plunge. I should never have done it if Eddie had not insisted that
according to the standard text-books the day in every well-ordered camp
always began with this ceremony. Not to take the morning dip, he said,
was to manifest a sad lack of the true camping spirit. Thus prodded, I
bade the world a hasty good-by and headed for the bottom. A moment later
we were splashing and puffing like seals, shouting with the fierce,
delightful torture of it--wide awake enough now, and marvelously
invigorated when all was over.

[Illustration: "Catching it in the skillet as it fell, compelled
admiration"]

We were off after breakfast--a breakfast of trout and flapjacks--the
latter with maple sirup in the little eating tent. The flapjacks were
Del's manufacture, and his manner of tossing the final large one into
the air and catching it in the skillet as it fell, compelled admiration.

The lake was fairly smooth and the rain no longer fell. A gray
morning--the surface of the water gray--a gray mantle around the more
distant of the islands, with here and there sharp rocks rising just
above the depths. It was all familiar enough to the guides, but to me it
was a new world. Seated in the bow I swung my paddle joyously, and even
with our weighty load it seemed that we barely touched the water. One
must look out for the rocks, though, for a sharp point plunged through
the bottom of a canoe might mean shipwreck. A few yards away, Eddie and
his guide--light-weight bodies, both of them--kept abreast, their
appearance somehow suggesting two grasshoppers on a straw.

It is six miles across Kedgeemakoogee and during the passage it rained.
When we were about half-way over I felt a drop or two strike me and saw
the water about the canoe spring up into little soldiers. A moment later
we were struck on every side and the water soldiers were dancing in a
multitude. Then they mingled and rushed together. The green islands were
blotted out. The gates of the sky swun