At St. Mary's 



picked himself out of the fire, evinced 

 any surprise at seeing the other doing the 

 same. Our bed, though smooth, was 

 sloping, the pine-needles were slippery, 

 and the fire was at the lower end of the 

 bed. We had fallen asleep at the same 

 time, side by side, began our unconscious 

 sliding race to the fire, and had come 

 in together, neither claiming any advan- 

 tage at the finish. 



"A dead heat," suggested Hardeman, 

 as with one hand he fanned his ankle 

 with the frayed flap of his trouser leg, 

 and with the other he ceased touching the 

 sole of his shoe, which was filled with 

 hob-nails lately heated in the fire. 



We discussed the idea of watching by 

 reliefs after this, but concluded that of 

 the two evils we preferred taking chances 

 with the fire ; and so, climbing back to 

 our bed, we curled up "spoon fashion," 

 and again fell asleep. To me it was a 

 night of sleeping moments and waking 

 hours, of toasted feet and frozen back ; 

 but with all the discomfort it was not 

 unpleasant, lying there on the soft bed, in- 

 haling the delicious fragrance of the resi- 

 nous pine, and looking up through the 

 motionless leaves to the starlit sky above. 

 All nature seemed, like us, to have gone 

 287 



