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Wild Northern Scenes - Sporting Adventures with the Rifle and the Rod by S. H. Hammond
page 68 of 270 (25%)
around him; the forests along the shore to lose their distinctness and
to stand in sombre and shadowy outline above the water; still no
prospect of relief presented itself. The twilight faded from the West,
the stars stole out in the heavens, the milky way stretched its belt
of light across the sky, and there he sat alone still on his rock, the
night dews falling around him, and the night voices of the forest
coming solemnly out over the water. Things had now assumed a serious
aspect. He could not stretch his limbs save by standing erect, and it
seemed inevitable that he must watch the stars during the night, as he
had watched the sun during the day. To sleep there was out of the
question. There was no room for a sleeping posture, and the danger of
rolling down the rock into the water kept him wide awake. At length
the pleasant sound of oars, and voices in jolly converse, fell upon
his ear, and he shouted. Two sportsmen were returning from the Upper
Lakes, and right welcome was the answer they returned to his call. He
was glad enough to be released from his rock, upon which, as he said,
'he had made up his mind that he should be compelled to roost, like a
turkey on the ridge of a barn, for the night.'

"To go back from this digression," continued the Doctor, "I repeat
that every man has a vein of the vagabond, a streak of the savage in
him, which can never be clean wiped out. Educate him, polish him as
you may, it will be in him still, and he will love to go off into the
old woods at times, to lay around loose for a season, vagabondising
among the wild and savage things of the wilderness. It is but
indulging the original instincts of our nature. True, he will not
relish his savage ways a great while. His old habits will lead him
back to civilization, to the luxury of a well-furnished room, the
quiet of an easy chair, and the repose of a soft bed. In a word to
'clean up' and shave and dress, so that when he looks into a glass he
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