IN THE CATSKILLS 



in the temperature, and as night drew near it became 

 pretty certain that we were going to have a cold 

 time of it. The wind rose, the vapor above us thick- 

 ened and came nearer, until it began to drive across 

 the summit in slender wraiths, which curled over the 

 brink and shut out the view. We became very dili- 

 gent in getting in our night wood, and in gathering 

 more boughs to calk up the openings in the hut. 

 The wood we scraped together was a sorry lot, roots 

 and stumps and branches of decayed spruce, such as 

 we could collect without an axe, and some rags and 

 tags of birch bark. The fire was built in one corner 

 of the shanty, the smoke finding easy egress through 

 large openings on the east side and in the roof over 

 it. We doubled up the bed, making it thicker and 

 more nest-like, and as darkness set in, stowed our- 

 selves into it beneath our blankets. The searching 

 wind found out every crevice about our heads and 

 shoulders, and it was icy cold. Yet we fell asleep, 

 and had slept about an hour when my companion 

 sprang up in an unwonted state of excitement for so 

 placid a man. His excitement was occasioned by the 

 sudden discovery that what appeared to be a bar of 

 ice was fast taking the place of his backbone. His 

 teeth chattered, and he was convulsed with ague. I 

 advised him to replenish the fire, and to wrap him- 

 self in his blanket and cut the liveliest capers he was 

 capable of in so circumscribed a place. This he 

 promptly did, and the thought of his wild and des- 

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