A FEARFUL NIGHT. 155 



with the contents of our knapsacks, furnished us a 

 noble supper. With my back against a stump, I held 

 a splendid trout in one hand, while my hunting-knife 

 in the other, peeled off his salmon-colored sides in 

 most tempting, delicious morsels. 



After supper I asked Mitchell if we could not get a 

 deer before going to bed. He said yes, if the wind 

 went down so that we could float them. This floating 

 deer I will describe in another place, for there was no 

 stirring out that night. The wrathful little swells 

 came rushing furiously against the unoffending beach, 

 the tall tree-tops swayed to and fro, and sighed in 

 the blast — our roughly-fanned fire threw its sparks 

 in swift eddies heavenward, and all betokened a wild 

 and fearful night. '' No boat must leave the beach," 

 and so carefully loading our rifles and setting them up 

 against the trees, we began to prepare for our night's 

 repose. Some with their heads under the bark shan- 

 ty, and their feet to the fire — others in the open forest, 

 with their heads across a stick of wood — lay stretched 

 their full length upon the earth. I lay down for a 

 while, but the wind, which had increased at sunset, 

 now blew furiously, filling the forest with such an 

 uproar that it was with difficulty I could shake off" 



