nother; but the underbrush grew thicker and
thicker, and at length the conviction was forced upon us that we were
completely astray. I climbed a tree--it was no easy task, as any one
who has ever attempted to climb a pine will agree. I got up some
distance, after a fashion; but the branches were so thick and the trees
so close together that there was nothing to be discerned, except that I
was surrounded by what seemed miles of green boughs, which swayed in
the breeze, making me think of the waves of an emerald sea.

I scrambled down and submitted my discouraging report. The sun was now
overhead: it must therefore be noon. We began to feel that even a
frugal meal would be welcome. I had managed to get a cup of coffee
before leaving my quarters; but Father Friday, I suspected, had taken
nothing. We succeeded in finding some berries here and there; and,
farther on, a spring of water. However, this primitive fare was of
little avail to satisfy one's appetite.

Well, after wandering about, and shouting and hallooing till we were
tired, in the effort to attract the attention of any one who might
chance to be in the vicinity, we rested at the foot of a tree. Father
Friday recited some prayers, to which I made the responses. Then he
withdrew a little, and read his Office as serenely as if he were in the
garden of the convent; while I, weary and disheartened, threw myself on
the ground and tried again to determine by the sun where we were. I
must have fallen asleep; for the next thing I knew the sun was
considerably lower, and Father Friday was waiting to make another start.

"How strange," he kept repeating as we proceeded, "that we should be so
entirely astray in a wood only a few miles in extent, and within such a
short distance from home! It is most extraordinary. I cannot
understand it."

It was, indeed, singular; but I was too dispirited to speculate upon
the subject. Soldier though I prided myself upon being, and strong,
active fellow that I certainly was, Father Friday was as far ahead of
me in his endurance of the hardship of our position as in everything
else.

Dusk came, and we began to fear that we should have to remain where we
were all night. Again I climbed a tree, hoping to catch a glimpse of a
light somewhere. All was dark, however; and I was about to descend
when--surely there was a faint glimmer yonder! As the diver peers amid
the depths of the sea in search of buried jewels, so I eagerly