ear or thought of
losing her way.

A mile or so distant a bare spot high on a wooded ridge struck her as a
likely place to get an unobstructed view. To reach some height and sit
in peace, staring out over far-spreading vistas, contented her. She
could put away the unpleasantness of the immediate past, discount the
possible sordidness of the future, and lose herself in dreams.

To reach her objective point, she crossed a long stretch of rolling
land, well timbered, dense in parts with thickets of berry bushes.
Midway in this she came upon a little brook, purring a monotone as it
crawled over pebbled reaches and bathed the tangled roots of trees
along its brink. By this she sat a while. Then she idled along,
coming after considerable difficulty to abruptly rising ground. Though
in the midst of timber the sun failed to penetrate, she could always
see it through the branches and so gauge her line of travel. On the
hillside it was easier, for the forest thinned out. Eventually she
gained a considerable height, and while she failed to reach the opening
seen from the Meadows, she found another that served as well. The sun
warmed it, and the sun rays were pleasant to bask in, for autumn drew
close, and there was a coolness in the shade even at noon. She could
not see the town, but she could mark the low hills behind it. At any
rate, she knew where it lay, and the way back.

So she thought. But the short afternoon fled, and, warned by the low
dip of the sun, she left her nook on the hillside to make her way home.
Though it was near sundown, she felt no particular concern. The long
northern twilight gave her ample time to cover the distance.

But once down on the rolling land, among the close-ranked trees, she
began to experience a difficulty that had not hitherto troubled her.
With the sun hanging low, she lost her absolute certainty of east and
west, north and south. The forest seemed suddenly to grow confusingly
dim and gloomier, almost menacing in its uncanny evening silence. The
birds were hushed, and the wind.

She blundered on, not admitting to herself the possibility of being
unable to find Cariboo Meadows. As best she could, and to the best of
her belief, she held in a straight line for the town. But she walked
far enough to have overrun it, and was yet upon unfamiliar ground. The
twilight deepened. The sky above showed turquoise blue between the
tall tree-tops, but the woods themselves grew blurre