A RAINY DAY IN CAMP 



bodily comfort, he is at once assured 

 that this is unattainable under the pres- 

 ent conditions of the weather. Shall he 

 beguile the tediousness of a wet day in 

 camp with books and papers ? 



Nay, if they were not left behind in 

 the busy, plodding world that he came 

 here to escape from, they should have 

 been. He wants nothing here that re- 

 minds him of traffic or politics ; nothing 

 of history, for now he has only to do 

 with the present ; nothing of travel, for 

 his concern now is only with the explo- 

 ration of this wild domain. He does not 

 wish to be bothered with fiction, idealized 

 reality is what he desires. Neither does 

 he care for what other men have written 

 of nature. Her book is before him and 

 he may read it from first hands. 



Looking forth from his snug shelter 

 on the circumscribed landscape, he 

 marvels at the brightness of a distant 

 yellow tree that shines like a living 

 flame through the veil of mist. The 

 blaze of his sputtering camp-fire is not 

 brighter. He notices, as perhaps he 

 never did before, how distinctly the 

 dark ramage of the branches is traced 

 109 



