STORY OF A PORCUPINE HUNT 57 



and we returned to the camp to secure more 

 thoroughly the first-caught porky. To our utter 

 disappointment we discovered nothing but the end 

 of the cord, which he had evidently bitten through. 

 It is scarcely necessary to say that we were utterly 

 disgusted at our bad luck, or carelessness, whichever 

 you like to call it. We had learned our lesson 

 however, and immediately took precautions against 

 the escape of our last victim. Then we all crawled 

 into the lean-to for a few hours' sleep. The night 

 was warm, so we had allowed the fire to die down, 

 and we arranged our blankets in the dark. A 

 shout of surprise and pain from the man caused me 

 to quickly strike a match and by its flickering light 

 I saw a most amusing sight. The escaped porcu- 

 pine had retreated to the inner part of the lean-to, 

 and finding the blankets very much to his liking, 

 had decided to make his bed there and then. The 

 man in moving the blankets had come into contact 

 with the animated pincushion and had received a 

 full dose of quills into his hands, with the result 

 that he entirely failed to see the funny side of the 

 situation. Of course he was powerless to do any- 

 thing with his fingers in that condition, so after 

 lighting a torch I extracted all the quills, a painful 

 and very tedious task. The boy in the meantime 

 kept his eye on the porky. Eventually all the quills 

 were removed, and then the porky was fastened to 

 a tree to await the morning's work. 



After a few hours of refreshing sleep we were 

 up, and by the time the sun was high enough we 

 began the photographic work. One of the pictures 

 called for a lake shore setting ; this required my 



