MOUNTAIN CAME. 133 



balances failure and success, spurning the 

 poorer souls who know neither. 



We turned our horses loose, hobbling one ; 

 and as we did not look after them for several 

 days, nothing but my companion's skill as a 

 tracker enabled us to find them again. There 

 was a spell of warm weather which brought 

 out a few of the big bull-dog flies, which drive 

 a horse — or indeed a man — nearly frantic ; 

 we were in the haunts of these dreaded and 

 terrible scourges, wiiich up to the beginning 

 of August render it impossible to keep stock 

 of any description unprotected where they 

 abound, but which are never formidable after 

 the first frost. In many parts of the wilder- 

 ness these pests, or else the incredible swarms 

 of mosquitoes, blackflies, and buffalo gnats, 

 render life not worth living during the last 

 weeks of spring and the early months of sum- 

 mer. 



There were elk and deer in the neighbor- 

 hood ; also ruffed, blue, and spruce grouse ; 

 so that our camp was soon stocked with meat. 

 Early one morning while Willis was washing 

 in the brook, a little black bear thrust its 

 sharp nose through the alders a few feet from 

 him, and then hastily withdrew and was seen 

 no more. The smaller wild-folk were more 

 familiar. As usual in the northern mount- 

 ains, the gray moose-birds and voluble, nerv- 

 ous little chipmunks made themselves at 

 home in the camp. Parties of chickadees 

 visited us occasionally. A family of flying 

 squirrels lived overhead in the grove ; and at 

 iiiglitfall they swept noiselessly from tree to 

 tree, in long, graceful curves. There were 



