BLACK FLIES AND MOSQUITOES. 169 



tains and lakes, another moon with bright stars shinin' and 

 twinklin' aronnd her, other broad heavens just as distinct 

 and glorious as those which arched above us. Don't laugh, 

 Judge, for me and Crop saw and heard all that I've been 

 describin' to you, and we felt it too, may be quite as deeply 

 as if we'd been bred in colleges and stuffed with the larnin' 

 of the books. 



" I heard the cry of the painter, the howl of the wolf, 

 and the hoarse bellow of the moose that night, and Crop 

 crept close alongside of me, in our bush-shanty, and an- 

 swered these forest sounds by a low growl, as if sayin' 

 to himself, that while he'd rayther keep out of a fight, 

 yet, if necessary, in defence of his master, he was ready 

 to go in. Wai, we started on up stnam next mornin 7 , 

 passed the second chain of lakes, and went along up the 

 crooked and windin' course of the stream, till towards night 

 we came in sight of Mud Lake. That lake is anything 

 but handsome to my thinkin'; you saw it was gloomy and 

 solemn enough, situated as it is away up on the top of 

 the mountain, higher than any other waters I know of in 

 these parts. All about it are fir, and tamarack, and spruce, 

 the lichens hanging like long grey hair away down from 

 their stinted branches, while all around low bushes grow, 

 and moss, sometimes a foot thick, covers the ground. That, 

 Judge, is the place for black flies and mosquitoes in June. 

 The black flies are all gone before this time in the summer, 

 but if you'd a taken this trip the latter part of June, you'd 

 have admitted that I'm tellin' no lie. If there's any place 



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