If
there
is
any
life
that
is
happier
than
the
life
we
led
on
our
timber
ranch
for
the
next
two
or
three
weeks,
it
must
be
a
sort
of
life
which
I
have
not
read
of
in
books
or
experienced
in
person.
We
did
not
see
a
human
being
but
ourselves
during
the
time,
or
hear
any
sounds
but
those
that
were
made
by
the
wind
and
the
waves,
the
sighing
of
the
pines,
and
now
and
then
the
far-off
thunder
of
an
avalanche.
The
forest
about
us
was
dense
and
cool,
the
sky
above
us
was
cloudless
and
brilliant
with
sunshine,
the
broad
lake
before
us
was
glassy
and
clear,
or
rippled
and
breezy,
or
black
and
storm-tossed, according
to
Nature's mood;
and
its
circling border
of
mountain
domes,
clothed
with
forests, scarred
with
land-slides,
cloven
by
canons
and
valleys,
and
helmeted
with
glittering
snow, fitly
framed
and
finished
the
noble
picture.
The
view
was
always
fascinating, bewitching, entrancing.
The
eye
was
never
tired
of
gazing,
night
or
day,
in
calm
or
storm;
it
suffered
but
one
grief,
and
that
was
that
it
could
not
look
always,
but
must
close sometimes
in
sleep.
We
slept
in
the
sand close
to
the
water's edge,
between
two
protecting
boulders,
which
took
care
of
the
stormy
night-winds
for
us.
We
never
took
any
paregoric
to
make
us
sleep.
At
the
first
break
of
dawn
we
were
always
up
and
running foot-races
to
tone
down
excess
of
physical
vigor
and
exuberance
of
spirits.
That
is,
Johnny
was—but I
held
his
hat.
While
smoking
the
pipe
of
peace
after
breakfast
we
watched
the
sentinel
peaks
put
on
the
glory
of
the
sun,
and
followed
the
conquering
light
as
it
swept
down
among
the
shadows,
and
set
the
captive
crags
and
forests free.
We
watched
the
tinted pictures grow
and
brighten
upon
the
water
till
every
little
detail
of
forest,
precipice
and
pinnacle
was
wrought
in
and
finished,
and
the
miracle
of
the
enchanter
complete.
Then
to
"business."
That
is,
drifting
around
in
the
boat.
We
were
on
the
north
shore. There,
the
rocks
on
the
bottom
are
sometimes gray, sometimes white.
This
gives
the
marvelous
transparency
of
the
water
a
fuller
advantage
than
it
has
elsewhere
on
the
lake.
We
usually
pushed
out
a
hundred
yards
or
so
from
shore,
and
then
lay
down
on
the
thwarts,
in
the
sun,
and
let
the
boat
drift
by
the
hour
whither
it
would.
We
seldom
talked.
It
interrupted
the
Sabbath
stillness,
and
marred
the
dreams
the
luxurious
rest
and
indolence
brought.
The
shore
all
along
was
indented
with
deep, curved
bays
and
coves, bordered
by
narrow
sand-beaches;
and
where
the
sand ended,
the
steep
mountain-sides
rose
right
up
aloft
into
space—rose
up
like
a
vast
wall
a
little
out
of
the
perpendicular,
and
thickly
wooded
with
tall
pines.
So
singularly clear
was
the
water,
that
where
it
was
only
twenty
or
thirty
feet
deep
the
bottom
was
so
perfectly
distinct
that
the
boat
seemed
floating
in
the
air! Yes,
where
it
was
even
eighty
feet deep.
Every
little
pebble
was
distinct,
every
speckled
trout,
every
hand's-
breadth
of
sand. Often,
as
we
lay
on
our
faces, a
granite
boulder,
as
large
as
a
village
church,
would
start
out
of
the
bottom apparently,
and
seem
climbing
up
rapidly
to
the
surface,
till
presently
it
threatened
to
touch
our
faces,
and
we
could
not
resist
the
impulse
to
seize
an
oar
and
avert
the
danger.
But
the
boat
would
float
on,
and
the
boulder
descend
again,
and
then
we
could
see
that
when
we
had been exactly
above
it,
it
must
still
have
been
twenty
or
thirty
feet
below
the
surface.
Down
through
the
transparency
of
these
great
depths,
the
water
was
not
merely transparent,
but
dazzlingly,
brilliantly
so.
All
objects
seen
through
it
had a bright,
strong
vividness,
not
only
of
outline,
but
of
every
minute
detail,
which
they
would
not
have
had
when
seen
simply
through
the
same
depth
of
atmosphere.
So
empty
and
airy
did
all
spaces
seem
below
us,
and
so
strong
was
the
sense
of
floating
high
aloft
in
mid-nothingness,
that
we
called
these
boat-excursions "balloon-voyages."
We
fished
a
good
deal,
but
we
did
not
average
one
fish
a week.
We
could
see
trout
by
the
thousand
winging
about
in
the
emptiness
under
us,
or
sleeping
in
shoals
on
the
bottom,
but
they
would
not
bite—they
could
see
the
line
too
plainly, perhaps.
We
frequently
selected
the
trout
we
wanted,
and
rested
the
bait
patiently
and
persistently
on
the
end
of
his
nose
at
a
depth
of
eighty
feet,
but
he
would
only
shake
it
off
with
an
annoyed manner,
and
shift
his
position.
We
bathed
occasionally,
but
the
water
was
rather
chilly,
for
all
it
looked
so
sunny. Sometimes
we
rowed
out
to
the
"blue water," a
mile
or
two
from
shore.
It
was
as
dead
blue
as
indigo
there,
because
of
the
immense
depth.
By
official
measurement
the
lake
in
its
centre
is
one
thousand
five
hundred
and
twenty-five feet deep! Sometimes,
on
lazy
afternoons,
we
lolled
on
the
sand
in
camp,
and
smoked
pipes
and
read
some
old
well-worn novels.
At
night,
by
the
camp-fire,
we
played
euchre
and
seven-up
to
strengthen
the
mind—and
played
them
with
cards
so
greasy
and
defaced
that
only
a
whole
summer's
acquaintance
with
them
could
enable
the
student
to
tell
the
ace
of
clubs
from
the
jack
of
diamonds.
We
never
slept
in
our
"house."
It
never
recurred
to
us,
for
one
thing;
and
besides,
it
was
built
to
hold
the
ground,
and
that
was
enough.
We
did
not
wish
to
strain it.
By
and
by
our
provisions began
to
run
short,
and
we
went
back
to
the
old
camp
and
laid
in
a
new
supply.
We
were
gone
all
day,
and
reached
home
again
about
night-fall, pretty tired
and
hungry.
While
Johnny
was
carrying
the
main
bulk
of
the
provisions
up
to
our
"house"
for
future
use, I
took
the
loaf
of
bread,
some
slices
of
bacon,
and
the
coffee-pot, ashore,
set
them
down
by
a tree,
lit
a fire,
and
went
back
to
the
boat
to
get
the
frying-pan.
While
I
was
at
this, I
heard
a shout
from
Johnny,
and
looking
up
I
saw
that
my
fire
was
galloping
all
over
the
premises!
Johnny
was
on
the
other
side
of
it.
He
had
to
run
through
the
flames
to
get
to
the
lake
shore,
and
then
we
stood
helpless
and
watched
the
devastation.
The
ground
was
deeply
carpeted
with
dry
pine-needles,
and
the
fire
touched
them
off
as
if
they
were
gunpowder.
It
was
wonderful
to
see
with
what
fierce
speed
the
tall
sheet
of
flame
traveled! My coffee-pot
was
gone,
and
everything
with
it.
In
a
minute
and
a
half
the
fire
seized
upon
a
dense
growth
of
dry
manzanita chapparal
six
or
eight
feet high,
and
then
the
roaring
and
popping
and
crackling
was
something
terrific.
We
were
driven
to
the
boat
by
the
intense
heat,
and
there
we
remained, spell-bound.
Within
half
an
hour
all
before
us
was
a tossing, blinding
tempest
of
flame!
It
went
surging
up
adjacent
ridges—surmounted
them
and
disappeared
in
the
canons
beyond—burst
into
view
upon
higher
and
farther
ridges, presently—shed a
grander
illumination
abroad,
and
dove
again—flamed
out
again, directly,
higher
and
still
higher
up
the
mountain-side- -threw
out
skirmishing
parties
of
fire
here
and
there,
and
sent
them
trailing
their
crimson spirals
away
among
remote
ramparts
and
ribs
and
gorges,
till
as
far
as
the
eye
could
reach
the
lofty mountain-fronts
were
webbed
as
it
were
with
a tangled network
of
red
lava
streams.
Away
across
the
water
the
crags
and
domes
were
lit
with
a
ruddy
glare,
and
the
firmament
above
was
a
reflected
hell!
Every
feature
of
the
spectacle
was
repeated
in
the
glowing
mirror
of
the
lake!
Both
pictures
were
sublime,
both
were
beautiful;
but
that
in
the
lake
had a bewildering richness
about
it
that
enchanted
the
eye
and
held
it
with
the
stronger
fascination.
We
sat
absorbed
and
motionless
through
four
long
hours.
We
never
thought
of
supper,
and
never
felt fatigue.
But
at
eleven
o'clock
the
conflagration
had traveled
beyond
our
range
of
vision,
and
then
darkness
stole
down
upon
the
landscape again.
Hunger
asserted
itself
now,
but
there
was
nothing
to
eat.
The
provisions
were
all
cooked,
no
doubt,
but
we
did
not
go
to
see.
We
were
homeless
wanderers again,
without
any
property.
Our
fence
was
gone,
our
house
burned
down;
no
insurance.
Our
pine
forest
was
well
scorched,
the
dead
trees
all
burned
up,
and
our
broad
acres
of
manzanita swept away.
Our
blankets
were
on
our
usual
sand-bed, however,
and
so
we
lay
down
and
went
to
sleep.
The
next
morning
we
started
back
to
the
old
camp,
but
while
out
a
long
way
from
shore,
so
great
a
storm
came
up
that
we
dared
not
try
to
land.
So
I
baled
out
the
seas
we
shipped,
and
Johnny
pulled
heavily
through
the
billows
till
we
had reached a
point
three
or
four
miles
beyond
the
camp.
The
storm
was
increasing,
and
it
became
evident
that
it
was
better
to
take
the
hazard
of
beaching
the
boat
than
go
down
in
a
hundred
fathoms
of
water;
so
we
ran
in,
with
tall
white-caps following,
and
I sat
down
in
the
stern-sheets
and
pointed
her
head-on
to
the
shore.
The
instant
the
bow
struck, a
wave
came
over
the
stern
that
washed
crew
and
cargo
ashore,
and
saved a
deal
of
trouble.
We
shivered
in
the
lee
of
a
boulder
all
the
rest
of
the
day,
and
froze
all
the
night
through.
In
the
morning
the
tempest
had gone down,
and
we
paddled
down
to
the
camp
without
any
unnecessary delay.
We
were
so
starved
that
we
ate
up
the
rest
of
the
Brigade's provisions,
and
then
set
out
to
Carson
to
tell
them
about
it
and
ask
their
forgiveness.
It
was
accorded,
upon
payment
of
damages.
We
made
many
trips
to
the
lake
after
that,
and
had
many
a hair-breadth
escape
and
blood-curdling adventure
which
will
never
be
recorded
in
any
history.