40 FOREST OUTINGS 



Family and Fisherman ... As you drive south in the lower western 

 corner of Montana, the country changes from the wide flat brown valleys 

 between steep black mountains around Bozeman to the choppy, green- 

 timbered country of the Gallatin National Forest. A campground lies 

 just off the road, deep in the mountain crotch cut by the tumbling Gallatin 

 River. Here the sun comes late in the morning and drops early over the 

 Spanish Peaks which rise to 10,000 feet, 11,000 on the west. It is an open 

 grassy place, fringed with bushes and tall spruces and firs. 



Two brown tents were pitched under the trees by the stream at one 

 end. It was cool and quiet under the trees. The early afternoon sun made 

 gold splashes on the pine needles on the ground, and the tops of the spruces 

 showed silvery against the brilliant china blue and white sky. 



Down at the other end of the campground stood another tent half in 

 the sun, half in the trees. Here the bank was open, grass covered, and the 

 river flattened out, running shallow over the rocks. 



Two little girls sat playing on the bank. Nancy, the smaller, sat with 

 her chubby short legs stuck out in front of her. Her bright-pink bathing 

 suit was smudged in front where she occasionally wiped her hands. With 

 one little finger she traced the slow path of a beetle in the dirt. Every now 

 and then Joan covered it with dust and Nancy gurgled, watching the bug's 

 frantic efforts to throw it off. Their neatly combed heads, each with a little 

 hair ribbon, were bent in earnest observation. A few feet off their mother, 

 Mrs. Walters, sat on a log sunning herself. Her full, plain face was flushed. 

 Gingerly she felt her shoulders. 



"Joan," she called, "Will you come put some of this sun-tan oil on my 

 back?" 



The child hopped up and went over to her mother. At the camp table 

 nearby Ed. Walters relaxed in the shade, a magazine propped up in front 

 of him, a half-amused smile on his lips. 



"There, that's enough." His wife took the bottle and screwed the top 

 on thoughtfully. 



"Swell article you oughta read in here," he told her. She smiled absent- 

 mindedly and went toward the tent. 



"What you up to now?" he asked. 



