PREFACE. 



The iacidents recorded in the following pages have been 

 neither invented nor exaggerated to any appreciable de- 

 gree. I have written in the belief that the actual doings of 

 real personages, always and everywhere, have an interest 

 of themselves quite independent of the manner of the tell- 

 ing, if the telling be truthful. So much I meant to be 

 sure of at all hazards. What we said, also, is perhaps as 

 veraciously set forth as the average interviewer reports his 

 unwilling victim. I have endeavored, indeed to give to 

 the reader truthful pictures of the actual summer vacation 

 life in the Adirondacks, to refresh the recollection of those 

 who have camped and tramped where we did, and to bring 

 back somewhat of their enjoyment of the lakes and moun- 

 tains and streams ; and also to give to others who may 

 read these records a reasonable, vivid and fair impression 

 of the wilderness and the experiences of summer life there. 



The chapters on Grayling Fishing have been added, as 

 having at least a cousinly relationship to the general sub- 

 ject of the book. 



The wisest of men, off in the woods, on a summer vaca- 

 tion, are "boys out of school;" and they seldom cany 

 much of the "shop" with them from office, store or desk. 

 The personages who appear in the following pages are no 

 exception to the rule. Doubtless the}' could have talked 

 any amount of philosophy, law, poetry, and wisdom of all 

 sorts; but, indisputably, they did not. Indeed, I do not 

 think the reader who has selected this book, from its title, 

 for a leisure hoiu* by the fireside or under the trees, is look- 



