74 WAKE-—ROBIN 
pads, which our willing fancies readily shaped into 
a deer, As we were eagerly waiting some move- 
ment to confirm this impression, it lifted up its 
head, and, lo! a great blue heron. Seeing us ap- 
proach, it spread its long wings and flew solemnly 
across to a dead tree on the other side of the lake, 
enhancing rather than relieving the loneliness and 
desolation that brooded over the scene. As we 
proceeded it flew from tree to tree in advance of us, 
apparently loth to be disturbed in its ancient and 
solitary domain. In the margin of the pond we} 
found the pitcher-plant growing, and here and there 
in the sand the closed gentian lifted up its blue/ 
head. 
In traversing the shores of this wild, desolate 
lake, I was conscious of a slight thrill of expecta- 
tion, as if some secret of Nature might here be 
revealed, or some rare and unheard-of game dis- 
turbed. There is ever a lurking suspicion that the 
beginning of things is in some way associated with 
water, and one may notice that in his private walks 
he is led by a curious attraction to fetch all the 
springs and ponds in his route, as if by them was 
the place for wonders and miracles to happen. 
Once, while in advance of my companions, I saw, 
from a high rock, a commotion in the water near 
the shore, but on reaching the point found only the 
marks of a musquash. 
Pressing on through the forest, after many adven- 
tures with the pine-knots, we reached, about the 
middle of the afternoon, our destination, Nate’s 
