He was very hungry, but felt rested and refreshed, and went at once to examine his position.
From the place where he stood he could see the end of the lake to the right, but on the left the view was impeded by a promontory.
His first effort now was to go to the promontory and examine the other end. The distance was not great, and he soon reached the place.
He looked eagerly down the lake, when, to his unutterable delight, he saw at the lower end the lone cottage to which the boat had carried him the day before.
All was now plain. He had wandered back to the lake blindly, and by such an extraordinary circuit that he had come to the shore about five miles away from the cottage.
He now set forth to work his way back to the cottage. He followed the windings of the shores, keeping the water always in sight. The distance was only five or six miles, but so circuitous was the shore, so full of indentations, and so rough was the way, that it was nearly evening when he reached the cottage.
No one was there when he arrived, but he waited, and at dusk a boat came over the water with Spence and Frank. For a day and a half they had been scouring the woods for him, and Frank, in his despair, did not know what to do. Paul was received as one who had risen from the dead.
[FATE OF AN ENTRAPPED BEAR.]
Wild beasts, in their wanderings through the forests, often meet and fight in the most savage manner. Here is a story told the writer, last summer, by an old gentleman in Somerest county, Maine:
"One of the toughest fights I ever saw," said he, "came off over behind that mountain yonder. It was years ago. Perhaps I saw with a boy's eyes at that time; I was but fourteen years old, then. But you shall have the story: