CAMPING ON THE NEPIGON 157 



bait is dropped into the water, just in the shadow 

 of a huge rock, when, tug zip whoop " Hello ! 

 Bring the landing net ! Quick ! I've got him ! 

 Hurry up ! " The air is heavy with the Preacher's 

 cries, and the rod is springing under the mad dives 

 of the trout, and then it is all over, and out on 

 the grass lies a beautiful " two-pounder," and the 

 Preacher is suffering from the taunts and jeers 

 of the Business Man and the Doctor : " Caught it 

 with a worm ! " " What kind of a sportsman do 

 you call yourself?" The pride begotten by cap- 

 turing the first fish is knocked down and trampled 

 upon by the shame of having been unsportsmanlike. 

 Let it be said that the next day that box of worms 

 was lost and never found. 



Back to camp, where we find the tents up and 

 supper well under way. That first supper in camp ! 

 Three hungry men devoured everything in sight, 

 until it came to pancakes; then they paused, not 

 from lack of appetite, but from fear of a sudden 

 and horrible death. From what ingredients Joe, 

 the cook, compounded those cakes will remain a 

 mystery forever. It was suggested that he had 

 cooked a flannel blanket or a pair of gum-boots, 

 but he denied it. We ate very sparingly of the 

 cakes, and soon afterward went to bed. That night 

 the Preacher had a dream. An enormous bird, 

 with curved beak and fierce eyes, persisted in 

 roosting upon his stomach. Nor would the bird 

 stand still, but with fiendish malignity curvetted 



