use of a neighbour who
lived about a mile distant. Supposing herself on the right path she
walked onward, till thinking the way rather long she stopped and gazed
earnestly around her, and became terrified as she noticed that the trees
and rocks, and every other surrounding object had a strange unfamiliar
look; and she knew at once that she had taken a wrong path.

Becoming much alarmed, she endeavoured to retrace her steps, but
after walking a long time would often return to the spot from which she
set out. She left home about ten o'clock in the forenoon, and her
friends, alarmed at her long stay, called together some of their
neighbours and set out to look for her, knowing that she must have lost
her way in the forest. They continued their search through the
afternoon, sounding horns, hallooing, and calling her name, as they
hurried through the tangled underbrush, and other obstructions, and at
sunset they returned to procure torches with which to continue their
search through the night; her friends were almost beside themselves with
terror, and all the stories they had heard or read of people being
devoured by wild animals rushed across their minds. But just when they
had collected nearly every settler in the vicinity, and were preparing
their torches to continue the search, the woman arrived safely at home,
with no further injury than being thoroughly frightened and very much
fatigued. She stated that she had walked constantly, from the time when
she became aware she was lost, and that she was so much bewildered that
she at the first did not know their own clearing, till some familiar
object attracted her attention. As the neighbours were going to their
homes, after the woman's return, they were, naturally enough, talking of
the matter, regarding it as a cause of deep thankfulness that no harm
had befallen her. Mr. G., one of the number, although a very
kind-hearted man, had an odd dry manner of speaking which often provoked
a laugh. It so happened that the woman who was lost was very small, her
stature being much below the medium height. Laughter was far enough from
the mind of any one, till old Mr. G., who had not before made a remark,
suddenly said, "sic a wee body as you should never attemp' to gang awa'
her lane through the bush without a bell hanged aboot her neck to let
people ken where to find her in case she should gang off the richt
road." This was too much for the gravity of any one; and the stillness
of t