The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1915-11-19

Like many other rich men, Barclay
owned a hunting preserve in the
Adirondacks, and seldom went near
II. But the five granite mountains
surrounded by dense forests thickly
sprinkled with lakes was one of
| Tommys favorite stamping grounds.
/ It wasn't so much that he enjoyed kill
/ ing animals or seeing how many fish
he could catch as that once in
while he liked to be alone, and to
own eXertions.
The preserve was real wilderness.
One dirt road led from the railroad
station at Four Corners to the main
camp at the head of the biggest lake,
but otherwise the region boasted only
few narrow trails. And you had to
make your way from one landmark to
another as best you could. And
either you had to take plenty of con;
densed food in tins or trust to your
skill with rod and rifle to keep you
from going hungry.
Tommy would leave the train at
| Four Corners, hire a team, and get
himself put down somewhere alofS
the road leading to the main camp.
His kit on these trips consisted OF
blanket, a frying pan, kettle, a
change of underclothes, very light
.22-caliber rifle, four-ounce fly rod, a
compass, a pipe, tobacco, and a few
other odds and ends, such as matches
and salt and a pair of field glasses,
and an oxford book Of verse.
One night few days after Mary
blackstone had treated him so cav
alierly, Tommy camped on high
ground by the headwaters az a brook.
Just back of his shelter of balsam
boughs knob of granite stood up clear
above the surrounding forest Tommy
always called it the hub, because it
was almost the exact center of the
great ring, traced roughly by the five
mountains, and afforded glorious
views of them and of the low coun-
try, lakes, forest and swamp that in
tervened 1t was Tommy's favorite
camping ground. He would sit for
hours on the top of the hub his legs
hanging over into space, gazing and
dreaming.
On the particular night in question
he climbed the hub after fine sup
per of trout and ruffed grouse, filled
pipe and watched the day fade and
the stars come out. What he enjoyed
most was the sense of solitude; civ
ilization, of course, was within reason
able reach in any direction, but
Tommy did not feel as if it was. He
felt as if there wasn't another hui
man being within hundreds of miles.
There we're men at the main camp,
only fifteen miles away. but he pre-
tended that there weren't, and that he
was in the heart of a vast uneXplored
country which no other white man had
ever visited.
Presently the moon began to rise,
and that always made Tommy mourn
Cll and sentimental. If he had been
a dog he would have thrown back his
head and howled. Being young man
he sighed and began to imagine that
he and she Ia romantic edition of
Mary blackstone with better manners
and less worldliness) had come to
this wilderness to escape from the
outside world and to make their home.
What fun it would be! How he would
work to make her happy and COM
fortablel How easy it would be for
them to get along forever without any
body else to bother them.
Just then his head fell forward on
his breast, and he dreamed that he
smelled boiling cauliflower. 1t was a
smell to which he was particularly
sensitive, and which he particularly
hated. He walked with an angry start.
and the smell persisted.
His offended nostrils Quivered as
the nostrils of wild animal Quiver at
the smell of man. He was angry and
disgusted. And his feelings for the
people who had not only invaded his
solitude, but had brought cauli-
flower. more than one possibly, into
the northern woods, were not mt
TO print. His only satisfaction was
that in the morning he would hunt
them down and tell them what he
thought Of them.
But he had a bad night, and when
at last he did get to sleep he slept
so heavily that iaybreak didn't wake
him. Ry the time he had washed and
breakfasted. it was half-past seven
which is a shocking hour in the woods
Ue climbed to the top Of the hub
Field glasses in hand, he began TO