EVENING IN TOWN

InsiDE the cabin, warm lamplight fell on table
and floor and map-covered walls. Three puppies
tumbled about over our boots, chewing the leather
laces and sticking sharp teeth into woollen socks.
The air was blue with pipe-smoke.

“Well, it looks as though winter is finished. No
more sweating over dogs. I’m always sorry to see
the snow disappear, somehow.”

“Oh, I don’t know. Winter’s the hardest time of
the lot. The travelling’s tough, and if you stay in
Telegraph it’s like a holiday in hell with the heat
turned off.”

“Break-up’s worse, though. That and the early
winter. It’s this business of lying round and waiting
for weather that sends you bug-house. As long as
you can move it’s all right, but this burg would de-
range anyone's grey-matter in time. There are quite
a few Creekers who'd be locked up, if I had my
way.”

“You don’t have to stay in town to go nuts. How
about these crazy birds in the hills? Just too much

Cassiar, that’s all.”
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