CHAPTER XXIV 
ON DIAMOND CREEK 
For several days the weather had been cloudy and ° 
-unsettled. But on the morning when we woke in~ 
our first Diamond Creek camp a complete overnight : 
’ change had occurred. 
It was crisp, cool and clear—a true fall day—one - 
-of those heartening, out-of-doors, woodsey mornings 
when the dew on the grass sparkles mischievously, 
when the sun strikes the earth with a warm caress 
that quickens the electric air, when the sharp, sweet 
song of birds keeps time to the mounting song in 
the blood of the just-awakened camper. 
As the first soft spring evening of the year some- 
times will linger in the mind, noteworthy. by con- 
trast with its forgotten fellows, so this September 
day though no different, perhaps, from those that 
followed, still stands unique for me, still has its own 
- niche in the galleries of recollection. 
From, this time on to the end the weather was 
perfect. They were halcyon days these, cloudless, 
and with the crystal clearness of atmosphere and 
the tonic snap and sparkle of frost that autumn in 
the mountains means. The damp, sweet balsam 
odour of the firs, the cheery, crackling fires of pitch- 
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