Two Casual Days 59 



Thunday the twenty -fourth. 



The strengthening sun had barely dissipated the fog and frost 

 of early morning before the camp was honored with a visit from 

 the local game warden. The gentleman, genial enough of per- 

 sonal disposition, yet seemed to take it as an affront to his official 

 dignity that the cook and horse wrangler with the party were not 

 residents of the state of Montana, and was pragmatically insistent 

 on a certain clause of the state game laws providing that any 

 person employed by a hunting party as cook or packer shall be 

 esteemed a guide within the meaning of the act, and therefore 

 liable to a license fee of ten dollars in addition to being as required 

 by the sections covering the licensing of guides, "competent and 

 of good moral character." The act appears incomplete in this 

 section, inasmuch as it does not specify in what the item of com- 

 petence shall consist. William dug up a copy of the statutes and 

 showed the warden that the act also clearly provided that but one 

 guide to each party was required to be a resident of Montana, 

 and the warden reluctantly admitted that perhaps that was true, 

 though obviously far from satisfied. 



The morning was given up to correspondence, and a hot 

 afternoon following to some companionable loafing, and tinkering 

 up the stern of the boat to provide a firmer seating for the motor. 

 Trout were rising freely between four and six o'clock to small 

 midges, of which clouds were in the air over the water. Fewer 

 ducks were observed to-day than at any time previously. They 

 have apparently become aware of the camp and are taking another 

 route in preference to following their accustomed course from the 

 lake along the river. 



The persistence of the two men other than the inditer hereof 

 in devotion to their card game has caused the artist to remark 

 that his principal recollection of this trip will be of one sempi- 

 ternal shuffle, deal and discard against a background of sagebrush, 

 mountains, and evening glows, pointed by alarums and excursions 

 after duck and trout, and coyotes, of which at this present writing 

 there are apparently fifty or so yelping their souls out to the stars 

 within three hundred yards of camp. Jay, absent for a couple of 

 days, came back from Henry Lake to-night. A clear and frosty 

 night, and so ends this day all well. 



