ookout. He went faster and faster. In half an hour
the woods opened a little, then dipped. He hastened down, and at the
bottom found himself standing by the same old spring, though again it
had changed its north bearing.

He was stunned by this succession of blows. He knew now he was lost in
the woods; had been tramping in a circle.

The spring whirled around him; it seemed now north and now south. His
first impulse was to rush madly northwesterly, as he understood it. He
looked at all the trees for guidance. Most moss should be on the north
side. It would be so, if all trees were perfectly straight and evenly
exposed, but alas! none are so. All lean one way or another, and by
the moss he could prove any given side to be north. He looked for the
hemlock top twigs. Tradition says they always point easterly; but now
they differed among themselves as to which was east.

Rolf got more and more worried. He was a brave boy, but grim fear came
into his mind as he realized that he was too far from camp to be heard;
the ground was too leafy for trailing him; without help he could not get
away from that awful spring. His head began to swim, when all at once he
remembered a bit of advice his guide had given him long ago: "Don't get
scared when you're lost. Hunger don't kill the lost man, and it ain't
cold that does it; it's being afraid. Don't be afraid, and everything
will come out all right."

So, instead of running, Rolf sat down to think it over.

"Now," said he, "I went due southeast all day from the canoe." Then he
stopped; like a shock it came to him that he had not seen the sun all
day. Had he really gone southeast? It was a devastating thought, enough
to unhinge some men; but again Rolf said to himself "Never mind, now;
don't get scared, and it'll be all right. In the morning the sky will be
clear."

As he sat pondering, a red squirrel chippered and scolded from a near
tree; closer and closer the impudent creature came to sputter at the
intruder.

Rolf drew his bow, and when the blunt arrow dropped to the ground, there
also dropped the red squirrel, turned into acceptable meat. Rolf put
this small game into his pocket, realizing that this was his supper.

It would soon be dark now, so he prepared to spend the night.

While yet he could see, he gathered a pile of dry wood into a sheltered
hollow. Then he made a wind-break and a bed of balsam boughs. Flint,
steel, tinder, and birch bark soon created a cheerful fir