338 A BOOK-LOVER'S HOLIDAYS 



may have alternated again and again before 

 one or both finally disappeared. Life is rarely 

 static, rarely in a state of stable equilibrium. 

 Often it is in a condition of unstable equilib- 

 rium, with continual oscillations one way and 

 the other. More often still, while there are 

 many shifts to and fro, the general tendency 

 of change is with slow steadiness in one di- 

 rection. 



After a few days the Lamberts and I shifted 

 to Lambert's home camp; an easy two days' 

 journey, tramping along the portage trails and 

 paddling across the many lakes. It was a very 

 comfortable camp, by a beautiful lake. There 

 were four log cabins, each water-tight and with 

 a stove; and the largest was in effect a sitting- 

 room, with comfortable chairs and shelves of 

 books. They stood in a sunny clearing. The 

 wet, dense forest was all around, the deep mossy 

 ground spangled with bright-red partridge-ber- 

 ries. Behind the cabins was a small potato 

 patch. Wild raspberries were always encroach- 

 ing on this patch, and attracted the birds of the 

 neighborhood, including hermit and olive-back 

 thrushes, both now silent. Chickadees were in 

 the woods, and woodpeckers — the arctic, the 

 hairy, and the big log-cock — drummed on the 

 dead trees. One mid-afternoon a great gray 



