April 11, 1903.1 
cFOHEST , AND _ STREAM. 
288 
When completed, Jack's collection must have been 
most complete. It not only comprised 167 articles, but 
they ranged all along the sportsman's line, from the 
very handsome and very expensive meerschaum pipe 
which I bought for him in Europe while on our honey- 
moon, to an iron boat anchor weighing a hundred 
pounds or more. 
His friend Donald, who had spent hours and hours 
with Jack in discussing preparations for the trip, had a 
similar outfit. 
When packing time came I watched the process with 
great interest, and I confess, with a strong desire that 
I might, with Henrietta, Donald's wife, accompany the 
twain. But, though Jack had always been one of the 
most indulgent of husbaiids, he met my dififidently ex- 
l)ressed wish with the remark that after he reached 
camp if he found it to be comfortable and congenial 
for women, we might be invited to have our wishes 
for wild experiences in the wilderness gratified, But 
this meant but little to me, and my wishes vanished. 
I continued to lend him a helping hand, however, just 
as if my hopes had not been crushed most mercilessly. 
Among the many, many articles of his equipment 
was a hundred or more varieties of flies, for the "finny 
tribe" and "speckled beauties," he said; his "trusty, 
unerring" rifle of .22 caliber, a 12-ounce lancewood 
Hy-rod, which w^ould "cast a fly like a feather," he as- 
sured me, and a heavy, strong bait-rod, both supplied 
with half a dozen extra tips. His tents were carefully 
wound over the tent poles, after repeated trials, to suit 
his fastidious taste. Then his rubber suit, cap-a-pie, 
stifif and contrary and stuffed with numerous articles 
until it stood out in full form, perplexed him in the 
handling of it, and was finally disposed of by undoing 
one of the tents and wrapping it therein. Blankets, 
pillows, material for a mattress, two suits of under 
and outer clothing, ulster and rain coats, a leather 
sack coat, a bath robe, a pair of long and a pair of 
short rubber boots, three pairs of shoes, one pair hob- 
nailed, a pair of slippers and a sleeping bag made of a 
buffalo skin, were among the articles for personal com- 
fort and convenience, of which the list omitted was 
many times Jonger than the list enumerated. 
Then there was a list of cooking conveniences, longer 
than an inventory of the articles in my kitchen, all the 
way from a nutmeg grater to a firteen-quart kettle; 
also some catiap comforts, such as an oil stove, kero- 
sene lamp and shade, large mirror, earthen washbowl 
and pitcher, and perfumed soap, rose blankets for outer 
covering, tableware, etc., etc. 
A Rushton boat, a canvas boat and one in two parts, 
to be used for "porterages," he said, and a lot of 
"jack" lanterns, electric lamps and carpenter's tools 
made up one lot. 
The supplies for the table did not come to the house, 
but were sent direct from the grocery. 
It did not seem to me that he had overlooked a 
single thing in his list of 167 pieces, yet when he re- 
turned he said he had 148 things he didn't need and was 
short of some simple ones which he really did need. 
Evening after evening was spent in getting the duf- 
fle into transportable shape, and we were both glad 
when the end came and the great rolls of tents and 
their contents, and the big boxes were ready for the 
trip, all neatly marked "Liberty Camp, Heron Lake, 
Adirondacks.'.' 
Bright and early on one Monday morning late in 
April, Henrietta and I accompanied our respective 
husbands to the station to "see them off." All was 
haste and excitement for a few minutes, for the bag- 
gage master absolutely refused to permit the transpor- 
tation of the camp equipment as ordinary baggage, and 
not until a goodly "tip" had been accepted for "excess 
baggage" was the controversy settled. This accom- 
plished, our two husbands proudly tread the station 
platform in their $115 sportsmen's suits, with daggers 
and revolvers in their belts, and with us at their el- 
bows, while sweet adieus were said, until the train 
rolled into the station. In a moment they were gone! 
And as Henrietta and I walked along toward our 
respectiA'^e homes the awful thought came over us that 
whereas we were now only grass widows, what if some 
awful accident should befall them by which we would 
be made sod widows! The horrible thought did not 
forsake me during the entire day, and disturbed my 
sleep at night. 
It was some ten days before a letter came from either 
Jack or Donald, and then both Henrietta and I were 
made happy and forgot the talks we had had about 
being "neglected"; that while they were having a good 
time they were also unmindful of us, etc., etc. We 
were in each other's company almost constantly dur- 
ing this absence of our husbands, and if there was any- 
thing omitted as a topic for conversation it was done 
through forgetfulness or want of information. We did 
no gossiping, however, strange as it might seem. We 
talked about our friends and neighbors and people in 
general whom we did not know personally, to be 
sure, and did some criticising, but no gossiping. I 
hate gossipers ! Each told the other many society 
secrets, some of them very surprising, some of which 
it would do no harm to repeat, for they were "too 
good to keep." 
Jack's letter was long, endearing, and readable. I 
take some extracts from it: 
"We reached our camp late Monday night, after a 
beastly ride in a farm wagon a distance of eleven miles 
from the railroad. We couldn't bring all of our sup- 
plies, so the greater part was left to come in the next 
day, but it didn't come imtil Wednesday night, two 
days late. While I had made arrangements previously, 
as I had supposed, by letter for two guides, leaving 
the exact date when wanted to be fixed by telegraph, 
we found, to our great surprise, five guides on hand. 
This came from a blunder of the telegraph operator, 
who substituted 'ten' for 'two' in my telegram. 'Two 
guides must be at camp Monday not later than noon.' 
A consultation among the guides at the place where 
the message was received ended in the conclusion that 
not more than five guides could be advantageously em- 
plo3^ed by two men, and so that number came. We 
doubted the expediency of keeping so many in service, 
but they explained to us that we each needed a guide 
while fishing or hunting, that there should be a cook, a 
wood cutter, and one held in reserve to take the place 
of one who might become incapacitated. This seemed- 
reasonable, and we retained all of them. 
"We haven't done much hunting or fishing yet be- 
cause the flies are so thick. I have used up most of 
my tar oil, and wish you would call at Trouter's, and 
tell him to duplicate my previous order and send it by 
express and buckboard at once to 'Liberty Camp, 
Heron Lake, Adirondacks.' 
"I fished one evening, using a primrose fly. My line 
tangled a good deal at first, and later I lost what the 
guide said was the biggest fish he ever saw. In my 
haste I cast again, hooked the guide in the ear and had 
to go ashore and get it out — the hook, I mean. The 
guide said the weather wasn't favorable for fishing. 
"There was some snow on the ground, which I , 
thought was good for still-hunting, according to the 
Forest and Streaivi, so I got out my rifle one morn- 
ing and went off on a hunt, moving most cautiously. I 
saw no deer. When I returned one of the guides had 
the impudence to tell me that in April deer were so 
poor that they could not stand alone; hence I could 
not see one; also that if I had killed one I would be 
subject to a fine of $250. I should have thought the 
guide was under the influence of Hquor if there had 
been any within five miles of camp. 
"Now, about the coming here of you 'and Henrietta. 
Nothing could he more comfortable than our accom- 
modations, and we live high. We are told by the guides 
that they never saw a more unique camp; that it is 
built and conducted according to the ideas of a true 
sportsman. I was not sure whether he was compli- 
menting me or some other sportsman. You would 
find it an awful hard trip coming in here, and would 
suffer from the great swarms of punkies, wasps, bees 
and deer flies; but perhaps you could get on with them. 
We both wish you and Henrietta were here, yet we are 
agreed that we cannot urge you to come; indeed, to 
be entirely frank with you we should advise you not 
to come, as much as we want to see you, if you were 
to ask our 'opinion.' " 
After reading my letter my mind was filled with 
queries, and the more I considered it the more my 
curiosity was aroused. I called immediately on Hen- 
rietta and found that she had receive'd a letter from 
Donald, and on comparing the two letters they were 
so much alike that it was perfectly apparent that our 
husbands had agreed upon the stories they would tell; 
and it was also too apparent that they could get on 
without us. The more we discussed these letters the 
more determined were we to unravel the mysteries, 
and it was not without some of the spirit of a woman 
who cannot abide deception by her husband that we 
very soon resolved that we would pay a visit to Lib- 
erty Camp, Heron Lake, Adirondacks, and we con- 
cluded to start at once on the morrow, and spent the 
remainder of the day and evening in putting our golf 
suits in order for the trip. 
With only hand bags for baggage, off we went, and 
without special incident during the trip to relate. When 
within half a mile of the camp, an hour or more be- 
fore sundown, we halted the horses and walked the re- 
mainder of the way that we might stealthily surprise 
the settlement, which we did. We found not a line 
of tents, which we expected to see, but a bark shanty, 
seedy from age, with the earthen floor covered with 
last year's balsam boughs. The surroundings were 
no less forbidding. There was not a sign of the camp 
comforts or cooking utensils which our husbands' had 
transported from home; in fact, there was nothing to 
relieve the utter desolation of the place. 
The five guides, who were comfortably seated at a 
card game when we came upon them, were scarcely 
civil to us; but one of them did take the trouble to 
explain that our husbands were "off somewhere fish- 
in'," and probably would soon return' so we had noth- 
ing to do but wait for their coming and discuss the 
situation. When they came there was a warm greet- 
ing about equally mixed with surprise. 
Shortly after this we proposed a stroll, mainly for 
an opportunity to "talk it over" with our husbands and 
ascertain why they were pursuing such an utterly bar- 
barian life. We found that they were the victims of 
five lazy, shiftless guides without knowing it; that they, 
the guides, had conspired together and under various 
reasons and sundry statements plausible to a tender- 
foot, had really convinced our husbands that the life 
they were leading was that of genuine sportsmen — the 
other extreme of their ideas of the subject at home. 
There was not one single comfort to be had, for it 
would have cost the guides extra work, and very little 
work and full pay was their main object in life. None 
but the plainest food had been miserably provided, 
though the supplies embraced much which was luxuri- 
ous; but this was explained later, when it was found 
that the guides had made free use of the luxuries in the 
absence of Jack and Donald. I had never before really 
believed in hypnotism, but now I did, as I surveyed 
the situation. 
Henrietta and I spent the night as best we could, and 
in the morning were up bright and early, and firmly 
resolved to establish a condition of affairs which was 
endurable. To that end we ordered the guides to bring 
the tents and other things stored under a tree, to a 
pretty opening in the timber on the shore of the lake 
near a beautiful spring. There was a short consultation 
and some disguised appearance of rebellion among 
them; but soon they took up their work seemingly with 
a full understanding of what was expected of them, and 
long before the sun set we had a camp well pitched and 
supplied with the comforts and some of the luxuries of 
life, together with a thousand and one things we did 
not need, of course, but as they were present all pos- 
sible use was made of everything. The ideals of the 
men when at home were quite fully realized. 
Here we remained for two weeks, and found the 
verj' bliss of enjoyment; but this transformation never 
would have come about only that two women in- 
tuitively saw that laziness and falsity on the part of the 
guides was the reason for such imposition upon two 
men having their first experience in Adirondack camp 
life. 
Since these experiences — which, in the main, I hope 
to have repeated year by year — I have been told by old 
and reliable sportsmen that, while there is a diss of 
most shiftless, inexperienced ■ men- in -the - Adirondacks 
who call themselves guides and prey. upon uninitiated 
visitors to that exhibitiorf of nature in primeval' 
grandeur in the Adirondacks, the great body .of 
guides are men of character and trustworthiness, faith- 
ful to their- employers tmder all circumstances. 
None can know what rest, general physical benefit 
and happiness is to be found in the right kind of camp 
life in the Adirondacks until he shall have spent a , 
month or more in -such experiences. I do not mean such 
"camps" as cost large sums of money and are sur- 
rounded by the Vcist acreages which great fortunes can 
secure as against the humble, and poor, but honest, 
citizen. Rather choose, whatever" your means may be, 
a new and clean bark protection from the weather, 
pleasantly situated in some secluded place near a lake 
and spring, where nature will give plentifully of her' 
great bounty, for the renewal of health and strength. 
■ ' Jack's Wife, 
■ — « — 
Spring in the Adirondacks. 
The first sign of spring in the Adirondacks is seen 
when the snow is five or six fe;et deep and the ther- 
mometer registers below the freezing point. It is the fol- 
lowing of one fox by another. One will find the tracks 
leading along over, the snow, sometimes with the track of 
the second fox placed squarely in the first, so that you 
could not tell that two had passed by. It marks the be- 
ginning of the mating season of a great number of birds 
and animals. Probably the next sign is the coming of the 
crow, about the first of March. He does not winter here 
as he does in most parts of the State, but comes along 
about the time the first bare ground shows 011 top of hills 
and knolls of the sandy farms which are to be found dose 
to the edge of the "big woods." The dickcisse!— some- 
times^ called the little meadowlark — a bird whose call may 
be mistaken for the common meadowlark — follows soon ' 
after the crow. The ine'adowlark does not come until late 
in March. 
The skunk is not a good timepiece by which to tell the 
coming of spring, for he comes out at rnost any time, in 
the winter during a good thaw. But if one will stroll 
around a little about the first of March, when the ther- 
mometer is above 32 Fahrenheit, he will ' see its tracks 
leading aimlessly about over the granular snow, and per- 
chance_ he wdl see the animal itself, for now he goes 
about in broad daylight, even when the sun is brightly' 
shining. _ ^, 
The raiiis of early spring make a sight in the woods 
well worth standing out in the wet to see. As the warm 
damp air comes in contact with the cool snow a fog is 
formed which the wind carries through the trees, giving 
almost a true picture of a forest fire. The fog" will' first 
drive swiftly close to the ground, and then shoot up into 
the air to the tree tops, whirl' ai'ound, then fall to the 
ground again and go eddying in and out among the trees. 
It will go swooping up the side of a ridge" or" mountain 
side sending the smoke high into the air to mix with the 
clouds above. To make it seem inore real the wind con- 
tinually breaks twigs whose crackling sounds as it does 
when they are burning. . • - 
Soon after the crow we see the first tracks of the' wood- 
chuck. In 1902 they cariie out on the 7fh of March, eight 
of them, and in the morning at that. Some of thern dug 
out through the snow. One came up through thi'ee feet. 
Each took a short run of from three to ten rods arid then 
back to its burrow. This year one came out the 21st of 
February. The sun was shining a little warm, but the 
wind was from the northwest and cold. There' was no 
bare ground or anything in the landscape to remind one 
of spring. It was a good winter day. He came up 
through a couple' of -feet of snow and just pushed his head 
out. The next day he came out a little further, but made 
no track upon the snow. After that he ventured far. out 
and was out nearly every day thereafter. 
The chipmunk appears a little before the ■ woodchuck, 
usually. Last year he was seen on Februat-y 24. When 
the backwoodsman heard of it he remarked that the back 
of the winter was broken. • 
The robin, bluebird and red wing blackbird and crow 
blackbird arrive next after the dickcissel and - after the 
woodchuck appears — that is, about IMarch 15. It is then 
that we think spring has really commenced. Close on to 
the robin follows the song sparrow. First you hear one, . 
even as wath the other birds, and as- the days pass by you 
hear and see more and more of them. By this time there 
is plenty of bare ground in the open fields, and if you will 
go along the southerly side of some hill you might see a 
snake basking in the sun ; and perhaps a lizard, a toler- 
ably lively little fellow, reddish on the back, blackish on 
the sides and gray on the belly. Very likely. ■ too, you 
will see a butterfly flitting about as lively as ever you saw 
one. ; . • ' 
The pussies of the willows and poplars show themselves 
during the first good thaw, and by the latter part of 
March the flowering and leaf buds of maples, birches, etc., 
growing in the clearings have swollen considerably, - but 
the first green thing to grow is the swail grass in wet 
ground on the south side of a hill. Soon after that the 
skunk cabbage can be . found coming up near the swail 
grass. Along about this time the kingfisher makes him- 
self known by his usual call as he flies up the already 
opened streams. The killdeer makes his appearance about 
the same time around the coves and marshes.' But he 
does not stay with us. He passes 0:1 to the north. A 
w^arm rain -in the first part of April hurries the .spring 
along. The buds of the balsam tree become quite large 
and conspicuous, while the adder tongue in the cleared 
pastures and the leeks in the patches of woods on the lo\s' 
lands spring from the ground. 
About the middle of April, the snow banks having all 
melted in the clearing, the first of all flowers, the bluet;'' 
can be found by looking sharply on the low saildy pasture 
lands, and to one side in the marshy bogs the cowslips, 
with little leaves, are budded. 
Now at sundown the many robins fill the air. with 'their' 
