158 DAYS IN THE OPEN 



and danced and double-shuffled, greatly to the 

 Preacher's discomfort. The unfortunate victim 

 expostulated mildly, but the bird laughed him to 

 scorn. Then the Preacher pushed the dancer off, 

 but the bird hopped back at once and proceeded to 

 execute a Highland fling. Then the long-suffering 

 Preacher arose in his wrath and, seizing a knife, 

 cut the bird's head off. Horror ! No sooner was 

 the " foul " deed accomplished than the bird proved 

 to be a man, and the Preacher was hustled before 

 a Chicago court to be tried for murder. The prose- 

 cuting attorney showed beyond a question that the 

 Preacher had deliberately killed this man. The 

 lawyer for the defence submitted, first, that the 

 man had no business to assume the form of a bird; 

 second, that the stomach of a Preacher should 

 never be used as a dance hall. The jury retires and 

 is gone for only five minutes. The Preacher 

 trembles in the box, and as the jurymen file back 

 into their seats he awakes. The verdict will 

 never be known, although the dreamer did his best 

 to go to sleep again at once and find out the 

 decision. 



The Doctor also had his experience that first 

 night in camp. He was shot. As he lay listening 

 to the gentle breathings of his tent-mates a sharp 

 report, as of a gun, was heard, and he felt a bullet 

 strike him over the heart. The end had come. It 

 was hard to die so young, far from his dear ones, 

 in the depths of the wilderness; but being a good 



