Cupid in the Wilderness 



This love will undo us all. O, Cupid! Cupid! Cupid! 



— Teoilus and Cressida. 



Human nature is the same the world over, and 

 Cupid, sly dog that he is, appears to know that the 

 wild woods and lakes and rivers of Maine are no ex- 

 ception to the rule. Ah, me ! if these same woods and 

 lakes and rivers had tongues and knew how to use 

 them, what queer tales they could tell and what in- 

 cidents might come to light that now slide into the 

 past unstoried and unrecorded ! 



Here, in this very wilderness, hunting, fishing and 

 pleasure parties yearly congregate, and among the 

 latter is plenty of fit food for Cupid's powder — young 

 and beautiful girls with enough will, skill and ingenu- 

 ity to paddle their own canoe and make love at the 

 same time, if their chaperons be sleepy enough to 

 permit the performance of such a double-barreled pro- 

 gramme. 



These fishing and pleasure parties remain no longei 

 than the middle or latter part of September; but 

 while they're here, the little, winged god is up to his 

 chin in business, and to be hit with one of his arrows 

 is as common as trouble. Ali, 



"Cupid i8 a knavish lad 

 Thus to make poor females mad." 

 19 



