trout, under the shade of some huge firtrees, by the side of a
beautiful spring that came bubbling up, in its icy coldness, from
beneath the tangled roots of a stinted and gnarled birch. Happily,
there was enough for us all, and we accepted at once the invitation
extended to us to dine. Towards evening, we rowed back to our shanty.
The breeze had entirely ceased, and the lake lay still and smooth; not
a wave agitated its surface, not a ripple passed across its stirless
bosom; the woods along the shore, and the mountains in the back
ground, the glowing sunlight upon the hill-tops were mirrored back
from its quiet depths as if there were other forests, and other
mountains and hills glowing in the evening sunshine away down below,
twins to those above and around us. We saw on our return along the
beach, the track of a bear in the sand, that had been made during the
day, and we had some talk of trying the scent of our dogs upon it. But
it was too near night, to allow of a hope of securing him, even if the
dogs could follow, and we gave up the idea, promising to attend to
bruin's case another day.

As we sat with our meerschaums, in the evening, speculating upon the
chances of securing a bear, or a moose, before leaving the woods, a
wolf lifted up his voice on the hill opposite as, and made the old
forest ring again with his howling. He was answered as in the night
previous, from away down the lake, and by another from the hill back
of us, and another still from the narrow gorge above the head of the
lake. However discordant the music appeared to us, they seemed to
enjoy it, for they kept it up at intervals during all the early part
of the night.

"Seeing that bear's track, and hearing the howl of those wolves," said
the Doctor, "reminds me of a story I heard told by an old Ohio pilot,