"Would addiction to camping cut? be considered reasonable grounds for separation?" inquired one of my happily married friends the other day.
"What?" I gasped, "You don't mean—"
"No, not exactly, but would it?"
"Dm afraid a conservative Justice would dismiss the plea us frivolous if nothing worse. But explain yourself."
a you know how fond Neville is of outdoor sports and that he counts the week end lost that sees him comfortable in his own home,"
"But I always supposed you were too, and I 'm sure no one makes s. better hostess on a houseboat, or gets up better picnic luncheons."
"Alleviations, mitigations merely." She pushed them away with a gesture. Nature and I are on bowing, perhaps smiling- terms, but I can never hope to be as chummy with her as my husband is, and if it were not for said vetter-or-worser I should never keep up the acquaintance. However, I am finding more to admire, in her year by year. At first I could hardly stand roughing it in a cottage at the beach or the mountains. Just as I learned to endure that with equanimity and was looking forward to Peitaiho, I was gently but firmly transferred te a houseboat and supposed to enjoy it.
Symproms oF ''CamPitis."'
I have at last learned to adjust my five feet seven to the cabin dimensions; I've evolved a system of houseboat comfort that really should be patented; I can join in Reville's enthusiastic pronouncements that "this is the life' with Tractically no mental reservations; but now that he is talking about getting off the beaten trail and finding out what Chinese country really means, escaping from towns and coolies and climbing mountain heights, I am wetting nervous. Yes, I saw him poring over Gamage's catalogue the other day and I fear the worst. I can tramp with anybody, I can walk through rain and sun, I can tiffin off a tablet and a square of chocolate, but I'do like a place to s'eep and dress and at least one and a half square meals per diem. Do I demand too much?"
"By. no means," I consoled. You are only proving that after all your protestations you have the essentials of a good camper. The real old-timer insists on good
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.