he air.

And more. A hundred visions rose,
He saw his mother's knotted hands
Ply round thick-knitted homely hose,
Her thoughts with him in desert lands.
A smiling wife, in bib and cap,
Moved busily from chair to chair,
Or sat with apples in her lap,
Content with sweet domestic care.

_All these his curse had put away,_
_All these were his no more to hold;_
_He had his canyon cold and gray,_
_He had his little heaps of gold._

CHAPTER XIX

THE GOLDSEEKERS' CAMP AT GLENORA

Glenora, like Telegraph Creek, was a village of tents and shacks.
Previous to the opening of the year it had been an old Hudson Bay
trading-post at the head of navigation on the Stikeen River, but
during April and May it had been turned into a swarming camp of
goldseekers on their way to Teslin Lake by way of the much-advertised
"Stikeen Route" to the Yukon.

A couple of months before our arrival nearly five thousand people had
been encamped on the river flat; but one disappointment had followed
another, the government road had been abandoned, the pack trail had
proved a menace, and as a result the camp had thinned away, and when
we of the Long Trail began to drop into town Glenora contained less
than five hundred people, including tradesmen and mechanics.

The journey of those who accompanied me on the Long Trail was by no
means ended. It was indeed only half done. There remained more than
one hundred and seventy miles of pack trail before the head of
navigation on the Yukon could be reached. I turned aside. My partner
went on.

In order to enter the head-waters of the Pelly it was necessary to
traverse four hundred miles of trail, over which a year's provision
for each man must be carried. Food was reported to be "a dollar a
pound" at Teslin Lake and winter was coming on. To set face toward
any of these regions meant the most careful preparation or certain
death.

The weather was cold and bleak, and each night the boys assembled
around the big campfire to discuss the situation. They reported the
country full of people eager to get away. Everybody seemed studying
the problem of what to do and how to do it. Some were for going to
the head-waters of the Pelly, others advocated the Nisutlin, and
others still thought it a good plan to prospect on the head-waters of
the Tooya, from which excellent reports were coming in.

Hour after hour they debated, argued, and agreed