“Certainly, that’s one of the prettiest things I ever saw,” said Jack, “and I’m mighty glad to have seen the eggs because I’ve seen the young ones. Don’t you remember, Joe, the little one that we caught three or four years ago, the first time that you and I ever hunted together on the mountains?”
“Sure,” said Joe, “I remember. That was the time we got the sheep, just before we went off to Grassy Lakes, where you counted your coup on the Assinaboine.”
“Yes,” said Jack, “that was the time. I tell you, Joe, you and I have had some pretty good times together, haven’t we?”
“You bet,” replied Joe, “and two or three times I’ve been pretty badly scared when I’ve been with you, but we always came out all right.”
“Well,” said Jack, “I’ve been scared, too, but I suppose we didn’t either of us show it.”
“No,” answered Joe, “I suppose we didn’t. I hope not, anyhow. I don’t mind being scared, if I can only keep it to myself, but I don’t like to have people laugh at me.
“Well,” he went on, “let’s go ahead, and leave this old mother to get on her eggs again.”
The boys kept on towards the head of the valley and at last could see that the stream that they had been following had its origin in a tiny, deep, green lake, lying at the very head of the valley and close under the rock wall and the high mountains to the east. When they reached this lake, Jack said, “What do you say, Joe? Shall we cross over and try to get down to camp on the other side of the valley? I don’t know whether we can find good walking there or not, but I guess we can, and I’d like to go over new ground if I could.”
“I say let’s try it,” replied Joe. “If we find we can’t get down that way, we can come back and go home the way we came.”
“Come on then,” said Jack, and the two started across the valley, walking on the beach of the little lake. The outlet was very narrow, and the boys jumped across it and then set out directly toward the mountainside. The going was not good, for the soil was full of water and overgrown by thick moss, above which stood a tangle of small shrubs and underbrush. However, the distance was not great, and before long they had made their way over to the mountainside, and there found a talus of slide-rock, much like that along which they passed on the other side. Here the walking was not as good as on the other side of the stream, because springs and trickles of water were constantly coming down from the mountainside.