JACK-O'-LANTERN 



mill-dams. Beyond the further was a quar- 

 ter-mile of climbing, squirming, balancing, 

 leaping from one unsteady foothold to an- 

 other, in burned windfall. Thomas, with 

 the canoe on his head, made nothing of this 

 obstacle race, but each of our four trav- 

 erses aroused in us a feeling of irritation 

 at these acres of charred spillikins. With 

 relief we laid legs to a stiff pass and from 

 the top plunged steeply down, following a 

 moose trail worn deep in the black muck, 

 to the marshes which feed the waters we 

 were seeking. 



At this moment of the year the quaggy 

 flats were a garden of the rarest beauty. 

 The Labrador tea was in fullest bloom. 

 Amid the creamy masses flowered the 

 swamp laurel, — fteur des savanes — the 

 dainty coral blossoms, every one solitary on 

 its slender stem, arranging themselves in a 

 thousand whimsical groupings. On this 

 gloomy bit of bogland the way\vard pink 

 bells swaying in the wind, composing 

 themselves afresh against the rich and solid 

 ivory background, conferred a brief day 

 of loveliness. 



We are soon at the edge of a little tarn 

 to which the high and densely timbered 

 hillsides grudge room. Black and myster- 

 165 



