THE LONG TRAIL 



way, Archie Butt and I took a scramble 

 down Rock Creek. It was raining and the 

 rocks were slippery, and at one point I 

 slipped off into the creek, but merely 

 bruised myself in entirely safe places, not 

 hurting my leg at all. When we came to 

 the final and stiffest cliff climb, it was so 

 dark that Archie couldn't get up." From 

 which it may be seen that neither endur- 

 ance nor skill suffered as a result of the 

 accident to the leg. Still, as Bret Harte 

 says, "We always wink with the weaker 

 eye," and when anything went WTong, the 

 leg was sure to be implicated. Father 

 suffered fearfully with it during the de- 

 scent of the River of Doubt. One of the 

 most constant pictures of father that I re- 

 tain is at Sagamore after dinner on the 

 piazza. He would draw his chair out 

 from the roofed-over part to where he 

 could see the moon and the stars. When 

 39 



