Los Angeles herald., 1891-09-18

FRYING EGGS OVER THE LANTERN.
My camping for the last week has been
in a rough made but comfortable cabin, in
which tired and weary l retired to my vir-
tuous dollar cot at the pensive hour when
the screech owl began to execute his rasp-
ing nocturn. 1t was a great comfort in
dropping off to sleep to feel that the rain
could not get through the roof nor the
snakes through the floor. There were no
mosquitoes, and the buzz that is worse
than the bite could not be heard, but we
had hornets nest wedged in against the
ceiling and wall. We left the windows
open sufficiently wide to allow the hornets
to pass in and out at will, and yet so near
ly closed as to make it impossible for the
casual wild cat to happen in through the
tropic odors of the night.
AS rule, we made the fire at 6 in the
morning if the wood was not too green to
ignite. If we could not make the fire go
we would breakfast upon apple pie and
milk obtained from neighboring farmer.
The great beauty of an apple pie breakfast,
aside from its power to generate indiges-
ton, lies in the fact that it doesn't leave
behind it a number of dishes thickly in
crusted with ham grease to be cracked with
a hammer or melted off over a candle
Upon one occasion we fried eggs over the
lantern that we used at night when we
wanted to find the brook to gather pail
of water. We were often driven to resort
to other strange devices, such as stropping
our razors on our suspenders, straining
soup through an ancient straw hat and
drying the dishes, when we were too lazy
to wash the towels, by arranging them in
the sun upon the twinkling sward
Occasionally a cold snap would come
along at about o'clock in the morning
and make us feel that the blankets were
made of tissue paper. This would compel
us to arise and dress before retiring for the
rest of the night. The place was infested
with ants, and the only way we managed
to keep these pests out of the pork and
beans was in indulging in only the canned
article. We hung the loaf of bread by a
string from the ceiling to prevent their
getting on it, and we never ate an apple
without first peeling it. The ants also
made bananas popular with us. The real
reason for keeping fire in the stove-when
the wood would ignite-was to prevent
the hop toad from covering it, and jumping
at us in the dark when we happened to
startle them. Now and then we would
shake the occasional hop toad out of our
bedding, but we didn't minA~t when it be-
gan to become familiar through repeti-
tion.
No one in the party liked to wash the
dishes, and no one cared for the pleasure
to be found in the innocent diversion of
cleaning fish. We all enjoyed an outing
very much, although each of us in various
ways met with about as many reverses as
fall to the lot of the average pair of cellu-
loid cuffs 1t is not the most delightful
sensation in the world to have the head
end of your cot come down in the middle
of the night and part your hair behind on
the floor. Nor is it calculated to put you
in the happiest frame of mind when you
make the startling discovery that COM
panion has washed out the glasses in which
eggs have been broken, with no other in
strument than your silver handled lather-
ing brush. r. K. MUNKITTRICK.