“I guess Mr. Everett will think I’m not much good,” mused Ted. “If I couldn’t do a little errand like that he won’t want me to do things for him again. It’s too bad! But I didn’t think it was so easy to get lost in the woods.”
Teddy was more lost than he realized, and he became aware of this when he saw that it was growing dusky. The sun was beginning to set, and though it was still light out in the open, in the fields and meadows, the woods had already begun to darken, as the dying rays of the sun could not get between the trees.
After having walked, as he thought, many miles, though it was very likely not more than two, Teddy became very tired and a little frightened.
Then he happened to think of something an older boy had told him to do when lost in the woods.
“When you think you’re lost in the woods, don’t rush about, but sit down and wait for a while. Help may come. And, anyhow, sit down for a while until you get quiet and aren’t so excited. You can’t think well when you’re excited.”
And Teddy was certainly excited now. I suppose you would have been that way yourself if you were lost and alone in the woods as was the Curlytop boy.
“I’ll sit down and think!” decided Teddy.
He did this, waiting and hoping that some one might happen along to lead him back to camp, which he could not find by himself. But as he sat there and the shadows grew longer, he began to worry and to think that he had better be doing something for himself.
“I’ll call,” decided Teddy, and he sent out loud shouts.
Now, as it happened, he did not begin to yell for help until after Jake and Sam had left their working place in the woods and were on their way home. Otherwise the lumbermen might have heard the boy’s cries. But chance so had it that when he was calling they were tramping through the underbrush too far away to hear him.