At such a time you will meet with adventures. One night we put fourteen
inquisitive porcupines out of camp. Near McGregor's Bay I discovered in
the large grass park of my camp-site nine deer, cropping the herbage
like so many beautiful ghosts. A friend tells me of a fawn that every
night used to sleep outside his tent and within a foot of his head,
probably by way of protection against wolves. Its mother had in all
likelihood been killed. The instant my friend moved toward the tent
opening the little creature would disappear, and it was always gone by
earliest daylight. Nocturnal bears in search of pork are not uncommon.
But even though your interest meets nothing but the bats and the woods
shadows and the stars, that few moments of the sleeping world forces is
a psychical experience to be gained in no other way. You cannot know the
night by sitting up; she will sit up with you. Only by coming into her
presence from the borders of sleep can you meet her face to face in her
intimate mood.
The night wind from the river, or from the open spaces of the wilds,
chills you after a time. You begin to think of your blankets. In a few
moments you roll yourself in their soft wool. Instantly it is morning.
And, strange to say, you have not to pay by going through the day
unrefreshed. You may feel like turning in at eight instead of nine, and
you may fall asleep with unusual promptitude, but your journey will
begin clear-headedly, proceed springily, and end with much in reserve.
No languor, no dull headache, no exhaustion, follows your experience.
For this once your two hours of sleep have been as effective as nine.
A WOODLAND VALENTINE
_By_ MARIAN STORM
Marian Storm was born in Stormville, N. Y., and educated at Penn
Hall, Chambersburg, Pa., and at Smith College. She did editorial
and free-lance work in New York after graduation, and later went to
Washington to become private secretary to the Argentine Ambassador.
Since 1918 she has been connected with the New York _Evening Post_.
This essay comes from _Minstrel Weather_, a series of open-air
vignettes which circle the zodiac with the attentive eye of a
naturalist and the enchanted ardor of a poet.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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