164 



THE ADIRONDACK. 



strong wind, against which we were compelled to 

 force our tiny skiffs as we pulled for the camp. It 

 was now nine o'clock, and I never waited with so 

 much impatience for a meal as I did for the johnny- 

 cake that was slowly roasting amid the ashes. We 

 had but one pan, and until the cake was done we 

 could not cook our trout — and so stretched under the 

 shadow of a huge stump, with my chip-plate in my 

 hand, I lay and watched the crackling flames with all 

 the philosophy I could muster. 



Mitchell, however, acted on philosophy of another 

 description, and while we were waiting for the pan, 

 dressed a pound trout, and cutting a long limber stick, 

 thrust one end of it through the fish lengthwise, and 

 sticking the other end in the ground, placed it at a 

 proper distance and angle over the fire. He then lay 

 down near it to superintend the cooking, which after 

 sundry changes and turns was completed. This 

 I had seen him do before, but now came the per- 

 fection of laziness. Sitting up, he swung the stick 

 around towards him, so that as he fell back on his 

 elbow, the trout hung suspended over his head ; and 

 thus while it bobbed up and down, he quietly peeled 

 off the delicious morsels and ate them. That grave, 



