Camping mid Hunting in the Skoskone 



thousand feet (excellent camping-places 

 are sometimes found at a height of ten 

 thousand feet or over), and he does not 

 need as much sleep as though he were at 

 sea-level. He may puff and blow like a 

 grampus as he faces a moderate hill ; for 

 he has scarcely realized yet that the atmos- 

 phere is so rare that he must boil his po- 

 tatoes (if he is lucky enough to have any) 

 for at least two hours, and he will do bet- 

 ter if he boil them all the morning, and 

 that he cannot, by twenty-four hours' boil- 

 ing, make beans soft enough to feed to 

 his horse. But he is growing younger, 

 not older. The world of cark and care 

 seems very far away, walled out by the 

 heavy mists that roll up from the plains. 

 What a fool he was to bother his soul, as 

 he did, with a thousand useless things ! 

 Now, having a good warm flannel shirt, 

 plenty of blankets, good meat, good bread, 

 and coffee to make glad the heart of man, 

 thoroughly congenial companions, glori- 

 ous days and nights — what more can he 

 want ? Now he needs no longer to cry, 



" O that a man would arise in me, 

 Tliat the man I am might cease to be ! " 



for he does not want the man he feels he 

 is to cease to be. The man he now is he 



54 



