ur camp-fire. We did not even pitch a tent,
for the sky was mild, and above us the monstrous trees lifted their
protecting canopy of stems. The hammocks were swung for the ladies, and
each gentleman "preempted" the claim that suited him best, by depositing
his blanket and rifle upon it. The entire party were in the best of
spirits, and nature responded to our happiness in its kindest mood.
Laughter sounded pleasantly at intervals from the busy groups, each
working at some self-appointed industry. The hum of cheerful
conversation mingled with the murmurs of the brook; and now and then the
snatch of some sweet song would break from tuneful lips, brief,
spirited, melodious as a bobolink's, dashing upward from the
clover-heads. And before the mighty shadow lying gloomily on the great
prairie plain, which stretched eastward for a thousand miles, had grown
to darkness, the active, happy workers had given to the bivouac that
look of designed orderliness which a trained party always give to any
spot they select in which to make a camp or pass a night. An hour
before, there was nothing to distinguish that grove of trees, or the
ground beneath them, from any other spot or hill within the reach of
eye. But now it commanded the landscape; and, had you been trailing
over the vast plain, the bright firelight, the group of men and women
moving to and fro, the picketed horses, the fluttering bits of color
here and there, would have caught your gaze ten miles away; and were you
tired or hungry, or even lonesome, you would have naturally turned your
horse's head toward that camp as toward a cheerful reception and a home;
for wherever is happy human life, to it all lonely life is drawn as by a
magnet.

And this was demonstrated by our experience then and there. For,
scarcely had we done with supper,--and by this time the gloom had grown
to darkness, and the half-light of evening held the landscape,--when out
of the semi-gloom there came a call,--the call of a man hailing a camp.
Indeed, we were not sure he had not hailed several times before we heard
him; for, to tell the truth, we were a very merry crowd, and as light of
heart as if there was not a worry or care in all the world,--at least
for us,--and the smallest spark of a joke exploded us like a battery.
Indeed, so rollicking was our mood that our laughter was nearly
continuous, and it is quite possible that the stranger may have hailed
us more than once without our hearing him. And