A BED OF BOUGHS 



view, then looked my mortification in the face and 

 laughed a bitter laugh. 



" But, hang it! I had all the fun of catching the 

 fish, and only miss the pleasure of eating him, which 

 at this time would not be great." 



" The fun, I take it," said my soldier, " is in tri- 

 umphing, and not in being beaten at the last." 



"Well, have it so; but I would not exchange 

 those ten or fifteen minutes with that trout for the 

 tame two hours you have spent in catching that 

 string of thirty. To see a big fish after days of 

 small fry is an event; to have a jump from one is a 

 glimpse of the sportsman's paradise ; and to hook 

 one, and actually have him under your control for 

 ten minutes, why, that is paradise itself as long 

 as it lasts." 



One day I went down to the house of a settler 

 a mile below, and engaged the good dame to make 

 us a couple of loaves of bread, and in the evening 

 we went down after them. How elastic and exhila- 

 rating the walk was through the cool, transparent 

 shadows ! The sun was gilding the mountains, and 

 its yellow light seemed to be reflected through all 

 the woods. At one point we looked through and 

 along a valley of deep shadow upon a broad sweep 

 of mountain quite near and densely clothed with 

 woods, flooded from base to summit by the setting 

 sun. It was a wild, memorable scene. What power 

 and effectiveness in Nature, I thought, and how 

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