When they came up I smiled at them, but there was not any answering smile.  Then George began to remonstrate with me.  He stood with folded arms, and serious, reproachful face, and said:  “Well, I guess you very near done it this time.”

“Very near done what?” I asked.

“Why, you have just about had us crazy.”

“Had you crazy!  What about?”

“Why, we thought you were lost.”

“Didn’t you see me over there on that ridge when I fired those shots?”

“Yes, we did; and when we got up to the other end of the lake we fired two shots, and we thought you would come back then.  I went up the ridge to meet you, and when I saw you were not there I was sure you went down to the rapids.  Then I ran down there, and when I did not find you there I thought you either fell in that rapid, or got lost.”

“But I promised not to go to that rapid.”

“Yes, I know you did; but I thought when you went up there on that mountain may be you would go to that rapid any way.”

“Well,” I said, “when I got to the end of the lake, and saw you were not coming, and the thunderstorm was coming on, and the flies were so bad, I thought I might as well be doing something nice while the storm was wetting me, and the flies were eating me.”

“Yes, that is just what we said.  ’Who would ever think of your going up there in that storm?’”

I laughed again, and George went on still trying to impress on me the evil of my ways.

“Job, too, he was coming running, and he was sure you were lost.  When I came to meet you, and could not see you on the ridge, and then went to the rapid and could not see you there, we began to walk faster and faster, and then to run like crazy people.  Poor Job, he could hardly speak, and neither could I, and out of breath, and half crying all the time.  Oh, we can never trust you to go away alone agains.”

I said:  “Very well, George, I’ll make a bargain with you.  If I can have some one to go with me whenever I want to climb a mountain, or do anything else that I think it is necessary to do in my work, without any fuss about it, I promise not to go away alone again.”

So the compact was made.

As we walked back to camp George talked.  “And you did it so quick too.  Why I was watching you up on that mountain where you went this afternoon, and you were so busy and running about up there, as busy as a Labrador fly.  You looked just like a little girl that was playing at building something, and I thought how you were enjoying yourself.  Then the first thing I knew I heard the shots on the other side of the lake.  We did not see you at first.  We just looked across the lake and could see nothing, and we wondered about those shots, and who could be there.  Then Joe said:  ’Look there, up on the mountain.’