124 THE ST. REGIS AND SARANACS. 



with an ardent devotion, and was as genial, robust and 

 gentle as becomes a true disciple of the rod. He fondled 

 liis rifle as if that, too, was a part of his dreaming while he 

 Avas saving his hundred dollars. I did not doubt that he 

 preached and taught all the more wisely for his accustomed 

 month with nature and the benignant lessons she teaches 

 her true votaries. His companion was an incipient Yale 

 Freshman, to whose youthful spirits the air of 'the woods 

 was like wine, without tlie headache. 



Our ways diverged at McC'ollum's, at Burnt Ground, and 

 I parted with my companions, with a powerful yearn- 

 ing to accompany them to camp and enjoy with them 

 what they had in store. It was here and now tliat 1 made 

 the acquaintance of McCollum and learned, from his lips, 

 his sad histoiy of the (h^mestie sorrow which brought him 

 hither. Yet he was .so strong and gentle, so manl3Mn every 

 sense, that I felt I was in the presence of one who had in- 

 deed learned to "suffer and be strong." 



He sent me with Ids horses and drivei' to the Meacham 

 Lake House, whither we drove, at a bretdi-neck speed, 

 over rocks and stumps and roots, while 1 held to my seat 

 in momentary expectation of a general smash as complete, 

 to all intents and purposes, as a rail-road collision. But 

 horses and wagons, in the woods, all seem to be made upon 

 honor, and we wenttlirough to our destination with nothing- 

 worse than a terrible shaking-up. 



The out-going i)arty which I had iioped to intercept, had 

 gone. However, on the following day, 1 caught a ride to 

 " Woodford's" — an old sportsmen's hotel in the borders of 



