The Kings River Outing of igio. ii 



After a refreshing wash and lunch, we again attempted 

 the grade through the scattering oaks and on up until we 

 approached a few giant sentinels and entered a grove of 

 massive sequoia, interspersed further on with lofty sugar 

 pine. No fenced-in tree trunks bearing borrowed names 

 and placards grossly advertising their size, but a forest 

 of giants primeval, secluded and undisturbed. It was a 

 fitting close for the long day as we silently passed through 

 the forest, awed by their massive splendor, thrown into 

 sharp relief by the sweeping glance of the slowly reced- 

 ing sun. 



Towards evening we reached Quail Flat, where the 

 mountain ridge thrusts its shoulder out of the forest 

 some 7^000 feet above the sea. The crisp air made us 

 scan with more than idle curiosity the heap of accumu- 

 lated dunnage bags in search of familiar initials. Our 

 sleeping-bags unrolled, the evening meal and fire drew 

 us like a magnet, many envious glances being cast at the 

 wholesome array sacrificed to appease a mountain appe- 

 tite, and hardly offered before it vanished like magic 

 in our midst. 



We slept a dreamless sleep — save those who lay in the 

 way of our foraging, long-eared, four-footed comrades, 

 who made the owner of one Merry Widow straw hat 

 sleepless for fear it would be included in their bill of fare. 

 Perhaps it was, for the hat, unlike the Bostonian's white 

 collar, was never seen again. We awakened as dawn 

 appeared to blaze the trail to the eastward. With fear 

 and trepidation we dragged our bags down to the scales 

 of justice with that dread experienced by some at the 

 approach of the census taker, lest the fact develop that 

 they are on the shady side of forty. The question of the 

 hour was not "How old was Ann?" but "Are you over 

 forty?" Insult a Sierra maiden with such a question and 

 she would laughingly confess to being over forty the day 

 before, but now hardly thirty-eight, and unless too much 

 stress be placed on the rejuvenating atmosphere, would 

 add that a hero had volunteered to carry a box of candy 



