It was my birthday too. That evening Mrs. Spencer
made some delicious punch and brought out the last of the huge fruit
cake she made for the trip. We had bemoaned the fact of its having all
been eaten, and all the time she had a piece hidden away for my
birthday, as a great surprise.
We have had one very stormy day. It began to rain soon after we broke
camp in the morning, not hard, but in a cold, penetrating drizzle.
Captain and Mrs. Spencer were riding that day and continued to ride
until luncheon, and by that time they were wet to the skin and shaking
from the cold. We were nearing the falls, the elevation was becoming
greater and the air more chilling every minute. We had expected to
reach the Yellowstone River that day, but it was so wet and
disagreeable that Captain Spencer decided to go into camp at a little
spring we came to in the early afternoon, and which was about four
miles from here. The tents were pitched just above the base of a
hill - you would call it a mountain in the East - and in a small grove
of trees. The ground was thickly carpeted with dead leaves, and
everything looked most attractive from the ambulance.
When Miss Hayes and I went to our tent, however, to arrange it, we
found that underneath that thick covering of leaves a sheet of water
was running down the side of the hill, and with every step our feet
sank down almost ankle deep in the wet leaves and water.
