304 MISCELLANEOUS. 



But I staid in until I got out of the woods, and meantime took 

 a find creel of trout. 



But these mosquitoes take the cake. They go for you at 

 all hours of the day as well as night. They make hay while 

 the sun shines. I have had my ears chewed in midday while 

 walking in sunlight until they looked like a couple of saddle - 

 rock oysters. I have had the back of my neck lacerated until 

 it looked as if I had born the yoke of Egyptian bondage for 

 twenty years. I have had my nose mutilated until it looked 

 like a sun-burned potato. If you are so fortunate as to sleep 

 under a mosquito bar, they waylay you until morning and 

 assail you as you come out. You put some of them on with 

 your shirt and drawers ; you put on some more with your 

 socks ; you tie up a good many in your necktie, and button 

 up a lot more in your pants and vest. Of course their useful- 

 ness is destroyed, but they are there all the same. Then 

 when you go to wash you rub some of them into your eyes, 

 and some more into your ears. You go into the saloon and 

 find them there also ; you drink them in your beer. At the 

 table, morning, noon and night, they attend you. You eat 

 them in your sausage, your corn-bread, and your gooseberry 

 pie. 



They stick to you when they once get a hold, like molasses 

 to a baby's face. You can't shoo them off ; its no use trying, 

 they won't shoo ; in fact, I never try, I make it a point to kill 

 every one that I can get my hands on. I allow no guilty 

 mosquito to escape. I have kept a careful account of the 

 number I have killed since June ist, and it foots up exactly 

 392,721,837,942, 4-11-44! Some folks may think this state- 

 ment exaggerated, but let them spend a month in the big 

 woods as I have, and they will be ready to make an affidavit 

 to the truth of it without fear or compulsion. 



