,A YEAR IN THE FIELDS 



to each other with terrific force and volume. 

 I know of no other animal capable of giving 

 forth so much sound, in proportion to its 

 size, as a frog. Some of these seemed to 

 bellow as loud as a two-year-old bull. They 

 were of immense size, and very abundant. 

 No frog-eater had ever been there. Near 

 the shore we felled a tree which reached 

 far out in the lake. Upon the trunk and 

 branches the frogs had soon collected in 

 large numbers, and gamboled and splashed 

 about the half-submerged top, like a parcel 

 of schoolboys, making nearly as much noise. 



After dark, as I was frying the fish, a 

 panful of the largest trout was accidentally 

 capsized in the fire. With rueful counte- 

 nances we contemplated the irreparable loss 

 our commissariat had sustained by this mis- 

 hap ; but remembering there was virtue in 

 ashes, we poked the half-consumed fish 

 from the bed of coals and ate them, and 

 they were good. 



We lodged that night on a brush-heap 

 and slept soundly. The green, yielding 

 beech-twigs, covered with a buffalo robe, 

 were equal to a hair mattress. The heat 

 and smoke from a large fire kindled in the 

 afternoon had banished every " no-see-em " 



ii8 



