160 LOCUSTS AND WILD HONEY 



"That tree needs the barber," we said, "and shall 

 have a call from him to-night," 



So after dark I touched a match into it, and we 

 saw the flames creep up and wax in fury until the 

 whole tree and its main branches stood wrapped in 

 a sheet of roaring flame. It was a wild and strik- 

 ing spectacle, and must have advertised our camp to 

 every nocturnal creature in the forest. 



What does the camper think about when loung- 

 ing around the fire at night 1 Not much, — of the 

 sport of the day, of the big fish he lost and might 

 have saved, of the distant settlement, of to-morrow's 

 plans. An owl hoots off in the mountain and he 

 thinks of him; if a wolf were to howl or a panther 

 to scream, he would think of him the rest of the 

 night. As it is, things flicker and hover through his 

 mind, and he hardly knows whether it is the past 

 or the present that possesses him. Certain it is, he 

 feels the hush and solitude of the great forest, and, 

 whether he will or not, all his musings are in some 

 way cast upon that huge background of the night. 

 Unless he is an old camper-out, there will be an 

 undercurrent of dread or half fear. My compan- 

 ion said he could not help but feel all the time that 

 there ought to be a sentinel out there pacing up 

 and down. One seems to require less sleep in the 

 woods, as if the ground and the untempered air 

 rested and refreshed him sooner. The balsam and 

 the hemlock heal his aches very quickly. If one is 

 awakened often during the night, as he invariably 

 is, he does not feel that sediment of sleep in his 



