BIRCH BROWSINGS. 189 



supposed to infest the locality, and then we disposed 

 ourselves for sleep. If the owls or porcupines (and 

 I think I heard one of the latter in the middle of the 

 night) reconnoitred our camp, they saw a buffalo 

 robe spread upon a rock, with three old felt hats ar- 

 ranged on one side, and three pairs of sorry-looking 

 cowhide boots protruding from the other. 



When we lay down, there was apparently not a 

 mosquito in the woods ; but the " no-see-ems," as 

 Thoreau's Indian aptly named the midges, soon found 

 us out, and after the fire had gone down annoyed us 

 much. My hands and wrists suddenly began to smart 

 and itch in a most unaccountable manner. My first 

 thought was that they had been poisoned in some way. 

 Then the smarting extended to my neck and face, 

 even to my scalp, when I began to suspect what was 

 the matter. So wrapping myself up more thoroughly, 

 and stowing my hands away as best I could, I tried 

 to sleep, being some time behind my companions, who 

 appeared not to mind the " no-see-ems." I was fur- 

 ther annoyed by some little irregularity on my side 

 of the couch. The chambermaid had not beaten it / 

 up well. One huge lump refused to be mollified, and 

 each attempt to adapt it to some natural hollow in 

 my own body brought only a moment's relief. But 

 at last I got the better of this also and slept. Late 

 in the night I woke up, just in time to hear a golden- 

 crowned thrush sing in a tree near by. It sang as 

 oud and cheerily as at midday, and I thought myself, 

 after all, quite in luck. Birds occasionally sing at 



