
; 
, 
H 
y 
ED RONCO CHALLENGES JOE, WHO ““SASSES BACK’”’ RIGHT DIREFULLY WITH THE 
JACK-KNIFE HE IS SHARPENING 
isn’t cold to-day.” His invitation was 
accepted, but in a manner unlooked for by 
him. One of the boys, who had quietly 
slipped into the stream, swimming under 
water and gauging his distance well, came 
up at the end of the log, and with the slight- 
est tilt he dumped the poor fellow into the 
icy element he had so carefully avoided. 
Such splashing and sputtering! Ed got all 
the warming up he needed before he got 
through. Shivering and dripping, he madea 
half-mile dash along the bank, until he got 
his circulation up and perhaps his temper 
down, and by the time we were dressed he 
joined us, with the remark that he “‘ guessed 
the water was wetter with your clothes on 
than with them off,’ and he seemed to 
enjoy the particular attention that had been 
paid to him. 
Writing of Ronco recalls a story told by 
another guide we had with us on the same 
trip, a case where a practical joke so worked 
upon the nerves of the less courageous 
sportsmen and even the guides of a party 
that the expedition was pretty nearly broken 
up. Harlow, the guide, had been one of the 
main figures in the experience, and so we 
listened wide-eyed and full of interest as he 
lay near the fire and so spun his tale: 
“Tt were the cutest and queerest trick I 
ever seen played on a sportsman, and 
begorry I laugh in me sleep many the time 
