Robert Michael Ballantyne

Away in the Wilderness Robert Michael Ballantyne

Camping out in the woods at night is truly a delightful thing, and the pleasantest part of it, perhaps, is the lighting of the fire. Light is agreeable to human eyes and cheering to the human heart. Solomon knew and felt that when he penned the words, "A pleasant thing it is for the eyes tobehold the sun." And the rising of the sun is scarcely more grateful to the feelings than the lightingof a fire on a dark night. So our friends thought and felt, when the fire blazed up, but they were toobusy and too hungry at the time to think about the state of their feelings. The Indian was hungry. A good fire had to be made before the venison could be roasted, so he gavehis whole attention to the felling of dry trees and cutting them up into logs for the fire. Jasper wasalso hungry, and a slight shower had wetted all the moss and withered grass, so he had enough to doto strike fire with flint and steel, catch a spark on a little piece of tinder, and then blow and coax thespark into a flame. The artist was indeed free to indulge in a little meditation; but he had stumbled in the dark onlanding, and bruised his shins, so he could only sit down on a rock and rub them and feel miserable. But the fire soon caught; branches were heaped up, great logs were piled on, forked tongues offlame began to leap up and lick the branches of the overhanging trees. The green leaves looked richand warm; the thick stems looked red and hot; the faces and clothes of the men seemed as if aboutto catch fire as they moved about the encampment preparing supper. In short, the whole scene wasso extremely comfortable, in reality as well as in appearance, that Heywood forgot his bruised shinsand began to rub his hands with delight. In a very short time three juicy venison-steaks were steaming before the three travellers, and in amuch shorter time they had disappeared altogether and were replaced by three new ones. The modeof cooking was very simple. Each steak was fixed on a piece of stick and set up before the fire toroast. When one side was ready, the artist, who seemed to have very little patience, began to cut offpieces and eat them while the other side was cooking