164 



THE ADIRONDACK. 



sfrong 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, 



