Days in the OpenCrandall, Lathan A. (Lathan Augustus)
General
Days in the Open
Crandall, Lathan A. (Lathan Augustus)
Fishing
From Camp Victoria we visited Virgin Falls, where, just after the river
leaves the lake, the water, pressed in between walls of rock, has a
sheer fall of some twenty feet. And what noble fish we took at this
camp! Great lusty fellows, lying in swift running water, and with every
muscle seasoned and wiry! Poems in gold and brown they were. The rougher
the water the larger and gamier the fish. It was here that the Doctor
had had an attack of sea-sickness. They were out in the rapids,
anchored, and the canoe was dancing about in the current, when the
Doctor suddenly lost all interest in everything above his head, and
fastened his gaze upon the bottom of the river. He heaved--well, call it
a sigh; now draw the veil.
Our camp was upon the solid rock, but when the thunder-storm was abroad
in the land, that rock shook and trembled. We shall not soon forget that
night of storm when our tent seemed a target for the lightning. In
the morning we found two great pines rent and shivered by the electric
bolts.
The Indians have their own explanation of a thunder-storm. The thunder
is the noise made by a giant bird as it beats its wings against its
body; the lightning is caused by the bird winking its eye.
The story of those idyllic days would require a volume for its telling,
and the patience of the reader is probably exhausted long ere this.
There came an evening when Joe placed a dish before us and announced,
“All potatoes.” To be sure they were all potatoes. Did he imagine
that we would take them for billiard balls? But there is a deeper
significance in his words. After a wild struggle with our language, he
manages to say,
“Potatoes all gone.” This is the beginning of the end. A hasty
examination of the larder shows us that we have barely enough provisions
to last until we can reach civilization. It is the Business Man’s
appetite that has undone us. He is not large in stature, but he has
developed an appetite that would paralyze a boarding-house keeper. The
worst of it is that his appetite has gotten away from him, and goes
roaming around among the victuals seeking what it may devour. Sadly we
pack up and turn our faces toward the south. Word is brought in that
Mary, the little daughter of our head guide, is dead. We press hurriedly
on, through the sunshine and the beating storm, and within twenty-four
hours from the time when the tidings reached us, our canoes are before
the little cabin and we watch the sorrowing father as he enters his
darkened home.=
```"Death comes down with reckless footsteps,
`````To the hall and hut."=
Sitting on the hotel piazza at Port Arthur, the Preacher watched the
steamer on which were the Business Man and the Doctor, until it became
a speck on the horizon and vanished from sight. He said in his heart,
“Those are good men and true. Dear friends before, they are still dearer
after the crucial test of camp life. God bless them alway.”
```_To stand within a gently gliding
`````boat
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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