A TRIP TO THE LA VAL. 81 



down the spear and took up his paddle, the greatest 

 example of self-command and honest sportsmanship I 

 ever knew. General Washington, when he refused to be 

 king, was no greater. My friend was not rewarded if he 

 did not sleep happier for it that night in the old cabin on 

 the shore of Lake la Yal ; and if the falling pipe of the 

 rotting stove that nearly crushed his head had killed 

 him, ha would have died virtuous, respected and without 

 reproach. 



Oh, that I had the pen of Julius Csesar, Homer, 

 Shak&peare, or even Byron, that I might write an ode 

 to sapin, the balsam fir-tree ! Tree of the weary woods- 

 man, tree of the luxurious sportsman, tree of all men 

 whom the drowsy god catches in the woods and compels 

 to his embraces ! A bed of thy leaves is softer than one 

 of eider-down, and far more comfortable. A prince 

 might sleep on thee and dream he was in paradise. 

 Thou preservest us from colds, from rheumatism, and the 

 many ills that flow from the evil humors of the cold 

 ground. Thy leaves, growing in one direction from the 

 stem, will lie flat, and may be piled to any depth a foot 

 of luxury, as in our permanent camp and make a couch 

 that combines the softness of the feather-bed with the 

 firmness of the mattress, and an elasticity purely thy 

 own. To thee, and to thy mate the hemlock, and thy 

 associate the white birch, I now, far from thee, waft, in 

 a cloud of tobacco-smoke, my love. Go on, increase and 

 wax great ; may often the one support me on the land, 

 the other on the water ! 



When the next morning's sun had once more brought 

 round my birthday, the thirty-first that had ever dawned, 



4* 



