354 "WILD SPORTS IN THE FAR AYEST. 



penetrating icy feeling awoke me ; it Avas raining 

 Lard ; the fire was out ; all was dark, and the present 

 was not calculated to sweeten the past. I pulled my 

 wet blanket closer around me, and in the depths of my 

 wretchedness, abused all the four elements, with the 

 wind and rain into the bargain. Day came at last. 

 Your dweller in towns, when he rises out of his v/arm 

 bed, and hears the rain beat against the window, 

 looks down for a minute or two on the people hur- 

 rying along in the street, pitying those who are driven 

 out in such unpleasant weather by business or neces- 

 sity ; then turns carelessly to his breakfast, growling 

 perhaps because he has let his tea or coffee get cold, 

 and at last throws himself on a sofa. How different 

 the case with the backwoodsman ! UnroUing himself 

 from his wet blanket, shaking his wet hair, shivering 

 with cold, devouring a morsel of cold, wet venison, 

 not as a dainty, but to satisfy hunger ; then wringing 

 his blanket, and laying another piece of venison in its 

 folds, he hangs it on his back, and continues his journey 

 through the cold, wet forest ; the lock of his riHe, and 

 the inside of the powder-horn, being the only dry 

 things about the whole man. How various the course 

 of things in this world. The cold and wet had in- 

 flamed and swelled my hand, which pained me much ; 

 I cut a long strip from the skin of the deer's back, 

 and made a sling of it for my arm, packed my other 

 things over my shoulder, grasped my rifle, and wan- 

 dered along under the dripping trees, turning my back 

 on the cold wind and rain. 



As the day advanced, I became less dissatisfied with 

 my fate and wdth the weather. I was indtfierent to 



