DINNER IN THE WOODS. 337 



pastime. You cannot imagine what an important event 

 dinner is in the forest. You not only think of it with 

 an appetite whetted by the bracing air of the woods, but 

 you have to consult where it shall be taken. Of course 

 you can at any time go ashore, kindle up a fire, and 

 cook your trout and venison ; but then a cold, fresh 

 spring of water is indispensable to a forest dinner. 

 About noon I hailed Charlie, who was cook and head 

 man in everything relating to the culinary department, 

 as well as in selecting sites for camps, and inquired where 

 we were to dine. " There is a clearing a little ahead," 

 he replied, " where there is a fine spring of water," and 

 soon after rounding a point we came upon a small patch, 

 of cleared land, the only signs of civilization we had 

 seen since morning. As we rowed ashore, we saw two 

 men standing before a little log hut that seemed disput- 

 ing with the stumps the right to the spot. In a few 

 minutes the champagne basket, with its extraordinary 

 accumulation of tin plates and basins, and forks and 

 knives, and pork and Indian meal, and flour, and soda 

 and saleratus, and " other things too numerous to men- 

 tion," was deposited in the hut ; and while Chet was 

 dressing the trout, Charlie pounded on a chip the veni- 

 son steaks, and John fried some pork. Charlie moved 



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