BENSON "goes FOR " A DEER. 59 



rattling savagery of the thunder, its roar and crash among 

 the mountains, — and the blinding floods of rain, descend- 

 ing as if the clouds were huge catapults hurling their Avild, 

 Avateiy missiles down with all the wrath of war! If the 

 stillness was appalling, so is this, the other possil)ility of an 

 Adirondack day. 



But on this occasion the giants were all asleep, and 

 Thompson and I stepped over and around them unconscious 

 of their presence, and declared there was notliing half 

 so charming as an afternoon raml)le and scramble in the 

 Adirondack woods. 80 do we all, in our daily lives, walk 

 among the unseen elements of tragedies, happy to day in 

 the sunshine, — to-morrow sitting Avith bowed heads and 

 aching hearts in the ilarkened home where the storm has 

 burst, the bolt descended, and there is an imtold desolation. 



We were in camp again, in the evening. " Boys," said 

 Benson, "Horace and I have a little business on hand. 

 This camp hasn't had a mouthful of venison yet, — and 

 there's plenty of it running around loose in these woods. 

 We're going for it." 



"Put him in the hold!" shouted the sailor-merchant, — 

 ' ' he's gone daft ! Too much lake water, no doubt, and too 

 little 'enlivener. ' — You don't propose to go out of camp 

 this dai'k night, do youV " 



" That's the programme, my dear, innocent friend. You 

 don't suppose I mean to shoot a deer up there where Neo- 

 phyte shot the rabbit, do you? " 



"But it's darker than a cellar, — and it's almost sure to 

 rain. " 



