A hunter's life. 265 



pulled off my hunting-shirt, spread it over two liral)S that 

 jutted out from tlie tree, and thus made a little place 

 where the raiu could not fall on my fire, until it got fairly 

 started. Then I took a dry limb from the tree, split it 

 fine, and kept it under the shelter until I struck fire again ; 

 when, having a large bundle of the splinters which con- 

 tained a quantity of pitch, the fire took hold, and in a 

 minute or two I had a high blaze among my pile of dry 

 logs. In a few minutes more, I had a fire which gave 

 light for some distance througli the thick piny grove, so 

 that I could see to prei)are for the night. 



It so happened that, under my fire, and also where 1 

 wished to lie down, there tvas a low hollow in the ground ; 

 and the rain, which was still falling rapidly, was ankle- 

 deep in it. I looked around for something that I might 

 at least sit on, to lay over the water, and found a very 

 large hemlock stump, that was rotten inside, but sur- 

 rounded by a shell of sound wood on the outside. I tore 

 off a piece, and finding it to be the very thing I wanted, 

 I soon made a good floor, and had a large piece left. 

 This I also made use of; for, as it was long, I propped it 

 up with the hollow side toward the fire, in a slanting posi- 

 tion, so that I could creep under it. The rain could not 

 then fall on me, and as the fire threw its heat under my 

 shelter, I would turn first one side and then the other 

 toward the blaze, which was continually increasing, until 

 I smoked like a coal-pit ; and as I had pulled off all my 

 clothes, wrung the water out, and put them on again, they 

 dried very fast. I turned round and round, until my fire 

 got so strong, from the quantity of large logs I had piled 

 on, that I had to creep from under my hollow tree, let it 

 down, sit on it, and lean my head and shoulders against 

 the hemlock. 



The rain having ceased to fall so fast, I rested against 

 \he tree, and fell asleep. B'-'^^g tired, I slept soundly 

 2f 



