ith a stroke or two of the paddles the _Long Green_ arrived gently at
the bank beneath that pine, and out would come the box of grub, the
gunny sack of pots and frying pans, and the rolls of bedding. Then the
canoe was drawn from the water, and, inverted, pressed into double
service as a table and a rain shelter, in case of need. Our waterproof
sleeping-bags were supposed to do as much for us, and on two occasions
showers dampened our slumbers, if not our spirits.

The important work of camping, which is not work at all, but play, is in
the commissary department. It has four stages: lighting the fire,
cooking, eating, and cleaning up; the third is, by all odds, the most
popular.

Concerning fire making, volumes have been written. It is quite possible
to learn from these incendiary publications exactly how to prepare the
proper, perfect kind of a fire under any and all circumstances. Study
alone is required to master the art--on paper! But in reality, making a
quick and satisfactory camp-fire, like creating frying-pan bread, is a
subtle attainment that can be mastered only by practice. No two people
agree; it is easier to start a dispute over the details of a camp-fire
than about anything imaginable, not even excepting the "best trout fly
made"--and that, every fisherman knows, is a matter of piscatorial
preference that has disrupted humanity since the days of Izaak Walton.

Camp cooking is another art. There, again, place not all thy faith in
books, for they are deceivers when it comes to a bit of bacon, a frying
pan, some corn-meal and flour, and a pinch of baking powder. The only
satisfactory rule is to have as few ingredients as possible and to have
plenty of them. Flour, corn-meal, bacon, dried apples, butter, hardtack,
sugar, salt, coffee, baking powder, beans--those form the essential
foundation. There is an endless list of edibles that may be added, which
run the gastronomic gamut from molasses to canned corn. But the way to
learn real camp cooking, and by all odds the best procedure for
happiness in transportation, is to take a small variety and keep each
article in a cloth bag, which insures few troublesome packages and no
disastrous leaks.

"Cleanin' up" is no trick at all, when there is a river full of water a
dozen feet from the fire, and it is simply a matter of two pots and two
tin plates. There, indeed, the joys of camp life come home to the
feminine member of the expedition most forcibly of all.

"I