I kept
looking up and seeing the stars just as I was going off to sleep, and
that woke me again; I had also underestimated the amount of blankets
which I should require, and it was not long before the romance of the
situation wore off, and a rather chilly reality occupied its place;
moreover, the flat was stony, and I was not knowing enough to have
selected a spot which gave a hollow for the hip-bone. My great object,
however, was to conceal my condition from my companion, for never was a
freshman at Cambridge more anxious to be mistaken for a third-year man
than I was anxious to become an old chum, as the colonial dialect calls
a settler--thereby proving my new chumship most satisfactorily. Early
next morning the birds began to sing beautifully, and the day being thus
heralded, I got up, lit the fire, and set the pannikins to boil: we
then had breakfast, and broke camp. The scenery soon became most
glorious, for, turning round a corner of the river, we saw a very fine
mountain right in front of us. I could at once see that there was a
neve near the top of it, and was all excitement.
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