OH, SHOOT! 



On one such day we were drying out around 

 a fire, the dogs were shivering wretchedly, huge 

 wet snowflakes were coating us like goose 

 feathers, when Ambrose voiced the fear that 

 we boys were not getting our money's worth 

 out of the trip. It was his idea that we should 

 leave camp much earlier, and thereby have 

 more time in which to enjoy ourselves. We 

 wrung out our mittens, clawed the accumu- 

 lated snow from the backs of our necks, and 

 through chattering teeth assured him that any 

 more enjoyment of this sort would probably 

 give us pneumonia. But he was set. When 

 we considered the matter, we decided that 

 pneumonia wasn't so bad, after all. Conges- 

 tion, fever, delirium had the edge on mutila- 

 tion at the hands of a cougar; therefore we 

 offered no strenuous objection when the matter 

 was put up to Uncle Jim. 



Uncle Jim is a thorough man, and literal to 

 a fault. He had us out the next morning at 

 half past two, and he kept us awake with a 

 sharp stick until we had swallowed our break- 

 fast. To amuse us and to occupy our minds, 

 he told us a story. 



"There's a trade rat around camp " he 

 began, but was interrupted. 



198 



