CHAPTER XVII 



MOOSE HUNTING 



(By the Leader of the Expedition) 



Well, in that hit you miss 



Romeo and Juliet 



How mightily sometimes we make us comforts of our losses ! 

 And how mightily some other times we drown our gains in tears 



All's Well that Ends Well 



AGNES has asked me to describe the hunting of 

 moose, and instance any particular stalk which still 

 lingers in my mind. Although a spell of time and 

 many thousand miles lie now between me and the 

 scenes herein discussed, yet ever and anon there 

 comes a gleam of vivid light travelling back across 

 that bridge of memory which spans all time and 

 space to help me live once more through never for- 

 gotten days. 



Looking over cherished diaries of halcyon hours, 

 there comes a picture of those distant lands, a picture 

 fresh and bright, as if the artist's colours still lay 

 moist upon its canvas. Once more I see those dis- 

 tant snow-clad mountains towering aloft in silent 

 grandeur, whilst from out of hidden ice-bound clefts, 

 far up among the peaks, a host of foaming torrents 

 spring, awakening strange echoes with the laughing 



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