138 Musings by Camp- Fire and Wayside 



night. We were sitting around the camp-fire ready 

 to retire, and in silence, when on the mainland we 

 heard two dashes into the water, one quickly follow- 

 ing the other, and in a moment such a fierce and 

 angry howling of wolves as we have seldom heard. 

 The pack had been in chase of two deer, which took 

 to the lake, and the hungry wolves were giving 

 voice to their bafifled hunger and rage. One of the 

 deer came over to the island and one swam across 

 to the further shore. They were no sooner on land 

 again than they quietly began feeding, and we sat 

 and listened for an hour to the plash of their feet 

 as they waded along the margins, cropping the 

 succulent shoots and lily-pads. So soon as they 

 struck water their danger was over, and they gave 

 it no further thought. A human being in such peril 

 would have brooded over it for hours, and have 

 recalled it with shuddering for years. Any one can 

 see the above trait on approaching a bird's nest. The 

 little parents are in great distress for the time, but 

 retire beyond their view, and in a moment they are 

 calm. Only men and women brood over the dis- 

 tressful past, or look forward with apprehension to 

 the future. They cherish the memory of past 

 pleasures of every kind, and look forward with such 

 joyous anticipations as to exceed in the pleasure of 

 anticipation the pleasure of the reality, if happily 

 the reality do not vanish like a mirage as they 

 approach it. If they have more pleasure, they have 



