108 LOCUSTS AND WILD HONEY 



merit I removed my shoes and socks, and waded in 

 the water to secure a fine trout that had accidentally 

 slipped from my string and was helplessly floating 

 with the current. This caused some delay and gave 

 the gnats time to accumulate. Before I had got one 

 foot half dressed I was enveloped in a black mist 

 that settled upon my hands and neck and face, fill- 

 ing my ears with infinitesimal pipings and covering 

 my flesh with infinitesimal bitings. I thought I 

 should have to flee to the friendly fumes of the old 

 stable, with "one stocking off" and one stocking on; " 

 but I got my shoe on at last, though not without 

 many amusing interruptions and digressions. 



In a few moments after this adventure I was in 

 rapid retreat toward camp. Just as I reached the 

 path leading from the shanty to the creek, my com- 

 panion in the same ignoble flight reached it also, his 

 hat broken and rumpled, and his sanguine coun- 

 tenance looking more sanguinary than I had ever 

 before seen it, and his speech, also, in the highest 

 degree inflammatory. His face and forehead were as 

 blotched and swollen as if he had just run his head 

 into a hornets' nest, and his manner as precipitate 

 as if the whole swarm was still at his back. 



No smoke or smudge which we ourselves could 

 endure was sufficient in the earlier part of that even- 

 ing to prevent serious annoyance from the same 

 cause; but later a respite was granted us. 



About ten o'clock, as we stood round our camp- 

 fire, we were startled by a brief but striking display 

 of the aurora borealis. My imagination had already 



