FOREST LIFE. 81 



" ' You don't seem to know me,' I observed. The tones of my 

 voice increased his astonishment, for they seemed famihar, but 

 the strangeness of my appearance confounded him, and I could 

 not refrain from laughing outright. Finally, half suspecting 

 whom I 7night be, he exclaimed, with much energy, 'Nick! in 

 the name of G — d, is it you V I soon satisfied them on this 

 point, while I briefly related my night's adveirture. Their as- 

 tonishment was great at seeing me in such an extraordinary 

 plight, but not greater than was my satisfaction to meet them 

 and to obtain the succor which I needed. After breakfast, some 

 of the men went in pursuit of my horse, saddle, and boots. The 

 last two they found on a little island in the stream, where, for 

 fear of losing them by the flood, I had lashed them to a stump 

 the night before." 



Having thus finished his story and replenished his pipe, the old 

 man leaned back against the camp walls and enveloped himself 

 in a cloud of smoke, while he listened, in turn, to the various in- 

 cidents in the experience of others, of which his own had been 

 suggestive. 



Fmally, after some little discussion as to the precise location 

 which each should occupy on the new bed, all hands " turned 

 in," to hve over again the fortunes of the day in the fantastic 

 dreams of night. 



Having completed our own cabin, we proceed next to con- 

 struct a hovel for the oxen, which are yet behind. In erecting 

 this, the same order in architecture is observed as in that of the 

 camp, the timber of which it is composed, however, being much 

 larger than that with which our ovvri habitation is constructed. 

 With the trunks of trees the walls are carried up nearly equal in 

 height, leaving one side, however, enough lower than the other 

 to give a moderate pitch to the roof, which is covered with the 

 same kind of material as that of the camp. In the camp for the 

 workmen there is no floor but the earth : the ox hovel, however, 



