The lake had never been what you would call a wild lake. There were cottages sprinkled around the shores， and it was in farming country although the shore of the lake were quite heavily wooded. Some of the cottages were owned by nearby farmers， and you would live at the shore and eat your meals at the farmhouse. That' s what our family did. But although it wasn' t wild， it was a fairly large and undisturbed lake and there were places in it which， to a child at least， seemed infinitely remote and primeval.