CHAPTER XVI. 



We had all the the enjoyment that a life in camp on the 

 shores of a beautiful lake gives, day after day. hut nothing 

 occurred very notable to record. The evening cam]) lire 

 nightly brought us all together, and there was "fun alive." 

 it, was a favorite pastime of the Editor's, as bedtime ap- 

 proached, to relate "hair-lifting" stories of panthers and 

 Other wild animals that are supposed to lurk in the forest, 

 hut which no summer visitor ever sees. On one evening in 

 particular he exerted his fancy to the utmost, hut with such 

 a truthful air that even the \ci\ elect would have heeii de- 

 ceived, if they had not known the editorial capabilities in 

 the \\ay of invention. The forest seemed alive with tragedies 

 ready to burst upon us from the black depths around. 

 None of us would have been surprised if a pack of wolves 

 had dashed down upon us across the clearing. A panther - 

 scream in the darkness of the adjacent wildenn- would 

 have been as natural to the occasion as the darting flight of 

 the cross-bills at sunrise. As we crawled into cam]) and 

 went to bed, one, whose fortune it was to sleep at the end 

 of the row, near the entrance over which hung a piece of 

 bagging, displayed an unusual nervousness. Such is the 

 inhumanity of man to man, that the rest also became very 

 nervous, and expressed fears that as the tire burned low we 

 might be attacked by some wild beast. 



