ice and
snow, intersected everywhere with streams of dirty water--this was what
it had degenerated into as we reached the pass. The snow was entirely
gone from the pass, so the sled was abandoned--left standing upright,
with its gee-pole sticking in the air that if any one else ever chanced
to want it it might readily be found. The snow-shoes were piled around
it, and we resumed our packs and climbed up to the pass. The first thing
that struck our eyes as we stood upon the rocks of the pass was a
brilliant trailing purple moss flower of such gorgeous color that we all
exclaimed at its beauty and wondered how it grew clinging to bare rock.
It was the first bright color that we had seen for so long that it gave
unqualified pleasure to us all and was a foretaste of the enhancing
delights that awaited us as we descended to the bespangled valley. If a
man would know to the utmost the charm of flowers, let him exile himself
among the snows of a lofty mountain during fifty days of spring and come
down into the first full flush of summer. We could scarcely pass a
flower by, and presently had our hands full of blooms like schoolgirls
on a picnic.

But although the first things that attracted our attention were the
flowers, the next were the mosquitoes. They were waiting for us at the
pass and they gave us their warmest welcome. The writer took sharp blame
to himself that, organizing and equipping this expedition, he had made
no provision against these intolerable pests. But we had so confidently
expected to come out a month earlier, before the time of mosquitoes
arrived, that although the matter was suggested and discussed it was put
aside as unnecessary. Now there was the prospect of a fifty or sixty
mile tramp across country, subject all the while to the assaults of
venomous insects, which are a greater hindrance to summer travel in
Alaska than any extremity of cold is to winter travel.

Not even the mosquitoes, however, took our minds from Johnny, and a load
was lifted from every heart when we came near enough to our camp to see
that some one was moving about it. A shout brought him running, and he
never stopped until he had met us and had taken the pack from my
shoulders and put it on his own. Our happiness was now unalloyed; the
last anxiety was removed. The dogs gave us most jubilant welcome and
were fat and well favored.

[Sidenote: Johnny and the Sugar]

What a change had come over the place! All the snow was gone f