ut she did not
mind that when we were camping.

I prepared the big fish (and I had a desperate time getting the skin
off), while my wife, who is one of the daintiest cooks in the world,
made the fire in the stove, and got ready the rest of the supper. She
fried the fish, because I told her that was the way cat-fish ought to be
cooked, although she said that it seemed very strange to her to camp out
for the sake of one's health, and then to eat fried food.

But that fish was splendid! The very smell of it made us hungry.
Everything was good, and when supper was over and the dishes washed, I
lighted my pipe and we sat down under a tree to enjoy the evening.

The sun had set behind the distant ridge; a delightful twilight was
gently subduing every color of the scene; the night insects were
beginning to hum and chirp, and a fire that I had made under a tree
blazed up gayly, and threw little flakes of light into the shadows under
the shrubbery.

"Now isn't this better than being cooped up in a narrow, constricted
house?" said I.

"Ever so much better!" said Euphemia. "Now we know what Nature is. We
are sitting right down in her lap, and she is cuddling us up. Isn't that
sky lovely? Oh! I think this is perfectly splendid," said she, making a
little dab at her face,--"if it wasn't for the mosquitoes."

"They ARE bad," I said. "I thought my pipe would keep them off, but it
don't. There must be plenty of them down at that creek."

"Down there!" exclaimed Euphemia. "Why there are thousands of them here!
I never saw anything like it. They're getting worse every minute."

"I'll tell you what we must do," I exclaimed, jumping up. "We must make
a smudge."

"What's that? do you rub it on yourself?" asked Euphemia, anxiously.

"No, it's only a great smoke. Come, let us gather up dry leaves and make
a smoldering fire of them."

We managed to get up a very fair smudge, and we stood to the leeward of
it, until Euphemia began to cough and sneeze, as if her head would
come off. With tears running from her eyes, she declared that she would
rather go and be eaten alive, than stay in that smoke.

"Perhaps we were too near it," said I.

"That may be," she answered, "but I have had enough smoke. Why didn't
I think of it before? I brought two veils! We can put these over our
faces, and wear gloves."

She was always full of expedients.

Veiled and gloved, we bade defiance to the mosquitoes, and we sat
and talked for half an hour