GALLANTRY AND HUNGER 195 



her telescope and bundle and started for her home. 

 I watched her as I stood on the rear platform of the 

 back car and saw her step on the porch of a cozy-look- 

 ing house. Two chubby tots ran to meet her, clapping 

 their hands and puckering up their little mouths for 

 a kiss. Before obliging them she turned, looked back 

 at the train, waved her thanks and a good-bye to the 

 man who had helped her in her time of trouble, and 

 then, like " Ships that pass in the night," we parted. 



At Plaster Rock we took a wagon for a night's ride 

 to Reilly Brook, twenty-eight miles up the river. We 

 started at quarter to 8 P. M. reaching the Brook at 

 1 A. M. At five we were oif for a wagon trip to the 

 Forks — a distance of seven miles — and we enjoyed it. 

 The air was " nipping and eager " ; myriads of spider 

 webs were spun by the roadside and hung from the 

 bushes, trees, and logs, coated with the night frost 

 and glittering in the morning sun like gems in a 

 jeweler's window. 



At the Forks we were joined by our canoemen and 

 also the chiefs of the hunting camps to which we were 

 bound. At quarter to eight we left the Forks, taking 

 to our canoes which were to be poled up the river to 

 Red Brook — a distance of twenty miles. The stream 

 winds in a tortuous course over a rocky bed, and, as 

 the water is low at this time of year, poling the 

 canoes was laborious work and hard on the men. 

 To lighten the load of my canoe I suggested — and 



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