54 HEART OF THE SOUTHERN CATSKILLS 



icy cold. Yet we fell asleep, and had slept 

 about an hour when my companion sprang up 

 in an unwonted state of excitement for so 

 placid a man. His excitement was occasioned 

 by the sudden discovery that what ajDpeared to 

 be a bar of ice was fast taking the place of his 

 backbone. His teeth chattered and he was 

 convulsed with ague. I advised him to replen- 

 ish the fire, and to wrap himself in his blanket 

 and cut the liveliest capers he was capable of 

 in so circumscribed a place. This he promptly 

 did, and the thought of his wild and desperate 

 dance there in the dim light, his tall form, his 

 blanket flapping, his teeth chattering, the por- 

 cupines outside marking time with their squeals 

 and grunts, still provokes a smile, though it 

 was a serious enough matter at the time. Af- 

 ter a while the warmth came back to him, but 

 he dared not trust himself again to the boughs; 

 he fought the cold all night as one might fight 

 a besieging foe. By carefully husbanding the 

 fuel, the beleaguering enemy was kept at bay 

 till morning came, but when morning did come 

 even the huge root he had used as a chair was 

 consumed. Rolled in my blanket beneath a 

 foot or more of balsam boughs, I had got some 

 fairly good sleep, and was most of the time 

 oblivious to the melancholy vigil of my friend. 

 As we had but a few morsels of food left, and 

 had been on rather short rations the day before, 

 hunger was added to his other discomforts. At 

 that time a letter was on the way to him from 

 his wife, which contained this prophetic sen- 



