Harper's Young People, April 19, 1881 / An Illustrated Weekly

HOW I LOVE YOU, MR. STUBBS!
Toby had begun to realize that he was lost in the woods, and the thought was sufficient to cause alarm in the mind of any one much older than the boy. He said to himself that he would keep on in the direction he was then travelling for fifteen minutes; and as he had no means of computing the time, he sat down on a log, took out the bit of pencil with which he had written the letter to Ella, and multiplied sixty by fifteen. He knew that there were sixty seconds to the minute, and that he could ordinarily count one to each second, therefore, when he learned that there were nine hundred seconds in fifteen minutes, he resolved to walk as nearly straight ahead as possible, until he should have counted that number.
He walked on, counting as regularly as he could, and he thought to himself that he never before realized how long fifteen minutes were. It really seemed to him that an hour had passed before he finished counting, and then, when he stopped, there were no more signs that he was near a clearing than there had been before he started.
Ah, Mr. Stubbs, we're lost! we're lost! he cried, as he laid his cheek on the monkey's head, and gave way to the lonesome grief that came over him. What shall we do? Perhaps we won't ever find our way out, but will die here, an' then Uncle Dan'l won't ever know how sorry I was that I run away.
Then Toby lay right down on the ground, and cried so hard that the monkey acted as if he were frightened, and tried to turn the boy's face over, and finally leaned down and lapped Toby's ear.
This little act, which seemed so much like a kiss, caused Toby to feel no small amount of comfort, and he sat up again, took the monkey in his arms, and began seriously to discuss some definite plan of action.
It won't do to keep on the way we've been goin', Mr. Stubbs, said Toby, as he looked full in his pet's face, and the old monkey sat as still and looked as grave as it was possible for him to look and sit; for we must be goin' into the woods deeper. Let's start off this way —and Toby pointed at right angles with the course they had been pursuing— an' keep right on that way till we come to something, or till we drop right down an' die.