ontaining
nineteen pounds of chocolate chips, and six dozen eggs--our first eggs
in many days.

In the shop, while making the purchase, the Head had pulled out a box of
cigarettes. The woman who kept the little store had never seen
machine-made cigarettes before, and examined them with the greatest
interest. For in that country every man is his own cigarette-maker. The
Middle Boy later reported with wide eyes that at her elbow she kept a
loaded revolver lying, in plain view. She is alone a great deal of the
time there in the wilderness, and probably she has many strange
visitors.

It was at the shop that a terrible discovery was made. We had been in
the wilderness on the east side and then on the west side of the park
for four weeks. And days in the woods are much alike. No one had had a
calendar. The discovery was that we had celebrated my birthday on the
wrong day!

That night, in the dead forest, we gathered round the camp-fire. I made
hot compresses. The packers and guides told stories of the West, and we
matched them with ones of the East. From across the river, above the
roaring, we could hear the sharp stroke of the axe as branches were
being cut for our beds. There was nothing living, nothing green about us
where we sat.

I am aware that the camp-fire is considered one of the things about
which the camper should rave. My own experience of camp-fires is that
they come too late in the day to be more than a warming-time before
going to bed. We were generally too tired to talk. A little desultory
conversation, a cigarette or two, an outline of the next day's work, and
all were off to bed. Yet, in that evergreen forest, our fires were
always rarely beautiful. The boughs burned with a crackling white flame,
and when we threw on needles, they burst into stars and sailed far up
into the night. As the glare died down, each of us took his hot stone
from its bed of ashes and, carrying it carefully, retired with it.

VIII

THROUGH THE FLATHEAD CANON

The next morning we wakened to sunshine, and fried trout and bacon and
eggs for breakfast. The cook tossed his flapjacks skillfully. As the
only woman in the party, I sometimes found an air of festivity about my
breakfast-table. Whereas the others ate from a tarpaulin laid on the
ground, I was favored with a small box for a table and a smaller one for
a seat. On the table-box was set my graniteware plate, knife, fork, and
spoon, a paper napkin, the Prince Albe