The Journal of a Sporting Nomad 
thick logs and placed them about a foot apart, 
then collected a handful of ‘‘ old man’s beard,” 
a lichen growing in abundance on the fir trees, 
which makes splendid kindling for a fire, even 
when wet. Then he brought some birch boughs 
and a log or two of the same wood, and stripping 
off some of the highly resinous bark soon had 
a fire started. Whilst it was burning up the 
cook filled the kettle at the river. 
Meantime Johnny had been getting on famously 
with the lean-to. He had stuck in some poles 
slanting towards the fire about three feet apart, 
and interlacing some spruce boughs between 
them, built out a wing of the same description, 
where the head of my bed was to be. Fresh 
armfuls of the tips of spruce boughs, with the 
cut ends tucked beneath, made me a couch a 
foot thick, and as night fell I spread my blankets 
and waterproof sheet on the sweet-scented 
resting-place. A small log provided the founda- 
tion for a pillow of all my spare clothes—a bed 
for a king! 
Then—supper. Bacon, bread and butter, and 
tea. 
More tired than I had ever been, I was as happy 
as it is possible for mortal man to be in this 
wicked world. 
The fire had burnt low when I turned in 
between my warm blankets. Towards morning, 
when the cold was at its greatest, the fire having 
ite) 
