A CARIBOU HUNT 87 



would soon feel the effect of his treatment ; and I 

 did a little sooner and a little more unpleasantly 

 than I wished. The iodine seemed to be ripping the 

 skin from my back and in so savage a manner that 

 the pain of it kept me awake till four o'clock next 

 morning. By that time the iodine had finished its 

 work. In a few days the scorched cuticle began to 

 peel and continued its peeling until my back was as 

 bare as a skinned catfish. Then I wondered how 

 long it would be before I could boast of a new suit of 

 skin. (I might say in parenthesis that although my 

 back had worn the old one for fifty years it was 

 still a good deal better than none at all.) 



However, " Everything comes to him who waits " 

 and the new suit reached me as the old one left. I 

 had no fault to find with its fit and it will probably 

 wear me the remainder of my days, unless I should 

 again tumble into the iodine bottle of a village doctor. 



How about the lumbago? Ah ! I am sorry to say 

 it still lingered and seemed to be in no hurry to 

 leave. But it did leave finally and in this way. I 

 had been out hunting on a caribou bog for six days, 

 jumping from log to log, climbing over " dead-falls " 

 and dodging the branches of the juniper and spruce 

 trees. The motions attendant upon these athletics 

 caused me much discomfort, as my lumbago kinks 

 followed one another with a rapidity and an energy 

 that threatened to throw me off my pins. However, 



