THE LONG TRAIL 



tlian a hare. In the evening, after we had 

 eaten, we would gather round the camp- 

 fire — for in the highlands the evenings 

 were chilly — and each would tell the ad- 

 ventures of his day, and discuss plans 

 for the morrow. Then we would start 

 paralleling and comparing. Father 

 would illustrate with adventures of 

 the old days in our West; Cuning- 

 hame from the lore gathered during his 

 twenty years in Africa would relate 

 some anecdote, and Mearns would talk 

 of life among the wild tribes in the 

 Philippines. 



Colonel Mearns belonged to the medi- 

 cal corps in the army. He had come with 

 us as an ornithologist, for throughout his 

 military career he had been actively inter- 

 ested in sending specimens from wherever 

 he was serving to the Smithsonian Na- 

 tional Museum in Washington. His mild 

 43 



