REMINISCENSES OF CAMPING IN 

 ITASCA STATE PARK 



ANNA. M. GILLESPIE 



LEST the reader should assume that this is to be a 

 tabulated summary of "do's" and "don'ts" for a 

 camping trip, I hasten to reassure or disillusion him as 

 the case may be, for be it known that I am not as yet 

 graduated from the amateur class of campers. Ye 

 editor peremptorily drafted me to write a squib for 

 this month's North Woods, and the nonchalant atti- 

 tude he assumed in doing so prompts me to say "A 

 word to the wise is sufficient," he may call on you 

 next; in fact, here's hoping he does, for you may "be 

 sure all of our Association members will be very glad 

 to hear from you. Tentatively seeking a clue as to a 

 suitable subject, my instructions were to choose "some- 

 thing funny, Mr. 0. for instance." The chance shot 

 didn 't fly very wide of the mark after all, for it im- 

 mediately called to mind a camping trip of last August 

 in which Mr. 0., his wife, my sister and I were the chief 

 participants ; and as for ' ' something funny, ' ' well, he 

 never failed to make us see the funny side of any inci- 

 dent that threatened to make camp life go momentarily 

 "hay- wire." 



The place chosen was that Mecca of tourists, Itasca 

 State Park, where the mighty Mississippi has its cradle, 

 and the towering pines, centuries old, whisper to the 

 infantile stream enchanted tales of the giant force it is 

 to become as it now glides, now plunges on its course 

 through half a continent. Itasca Park and Douglas 

 Lodge may justly claim to have "been advertised by 



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