“Shall we go any further?” asked Hinpoha doubtfully. 55 “These woods don’t look very easy to walk through.”
“Oh, yes, let’s go on,” begged Sahwah.
“We might get lost and not find our way back,” said Hinpoha.
“We’ll remember this big cedar tree,” said Uncle Teddy. “It’s the only one around here and it’s right near the river.”
Fixing the location of the big cedar tree in their minds they struck into the woods in the direction they thought the moose had taken.
“It’s queer we don’t hear him,” said Sahwah. “You’d think an animal as large as that would make a great noise running through the woods. Just listen to the racket Slim is making over there.”
“That’s where the moose has a secret no man can find out,” said Uncle Teddy. “Big and awkward as he is, he moves through the forest as silently as a phantom. How he does it no one knows. A horse or a cow, though smaller, would make ten times as much noise.”
“Do you suppose we’ll find our way back to the cedar tree?” asked Gladys, beginning to look rather solemn as the trees and bushes closed around them in seemingly endless array.
Uncle Teddy smiled and showed her a small compass he was holding in his hand. “We have been going straight west so far,” he said. “If we turn for any reason we’ll make note of the tree where we 56 turn. It is as easy to find your way through the woods as it is through the city if you will only keep your eyes open for sign posts.”
As he was speaking they came upon another cedar tree, as big and as old as the first; the only one they had passed since that one. “Now there is a landmark worth noting,” said Uncle Teddy, pointing to the tree. “Giant cedar, towering above other trees, only one in sight. Fifteen minutes’ walk due west from the other cedar beside the river. And you see we will have to turn right here because there seems to be a path at right angles to the direction we have been traveling, while it is swampy straight ahead.”