VI.
A long Drive, and a long Walk.—The wild Woods.—An Encampment.—The blazing Fire.—Lo! the poor Indian.—The Wolf and the Watch-dog.— The Spring of the Wild Beast.—Solomon to the Rescue.—A Fight, and a Flight.
AFTER a drive of about twenty miles, they came to a place where the road turned off towards the east. They had been heading thus far in a northerly direction, and at this turning-off place a path went from the road in the same northerly direction in which it had gone. At this place they got out of the wagon, and prepared to follow their guide into the woods. Each one took the load which he had already made up for himself, and the wagon then returned.
They did not care to burden themselves too greatly upon this expedition, and so the load which each one took was as light as possible. Bart, Phil, and Pat had each a basket slung from the neck, and a fishing-rod. In each basket was a parcel of ham sandwiches, which they had procured at the inn, with the intention of using them as a kind of relish, in addition to their ordinary wood fare, Solomon contented himself with a basket only. His fishing apparatus he carried in his pocket. He wasn’t gwine to bodder his ole head, he said, with dem poles—he could cut one in the woods when he wanted one, and throw it away when he got tired of it. Solomon’s years seemed to be adverse to his taking part in an expedition like this, but in spite of this he waddled along quite as fast as any of them. One precaution he had taken which none of the rest had considered necessary, and that was, to bring with him a check shawl, which Bart had lent him. This he did for fear of his ever watchful enemy, the rheumatiz.
The path was at first very well beaten; but after about a mile or so, it gradually faded away, and the track that they followed after this was so faint as to be scarcely discernible. The woods consisted chiefly of pine trees, with birch and maple intermixed. None of these trees were very large, and they did not see any of those forest giants which had met their view in other places. In some places the underbrush was very dense, but in other places there was scarcely any. Sometimes the ground was quite bare and slippery with the accumulation of pine spires that had fallen there; again, they came to immense growths of fern; and yet again to the young growth of the forest trees, springing in wild luxuriance, all tangled and matted together.
At length even the faint outline of a path which they had been traversing for some time faded away, and they walked on after the guide, without following any path at all. The land was quite level. They found no hills, and no rocks even. Sometimes a fallen tree lay in front of them, but it was never of sufficient size to create any obstacle. The chief irregularities in the ground were caused by an occasional mound, that seemed to mark the place where a tree had once been. Frequently they came to little brooks that babbled along beneath the trees, their borders overgrown with moss; and often they came to bogs and swamps, in some of which they got wet enough to acquire a very good foretaste of the experiences that now lay before them. But this was a trifle beneath their consideration, and the ease with which they advanced filled them all with the greatest delight.
At length they came to a stop.
It was in the midst of a pine forest. Overhead, the trees interlaced their branches. Beneath, the ground was dry, and covered with slippery pine spires. It was a slight declivity, and at the bottom a brook ran along. No better place could be wished than this for a night’s rest.
“Good place dis,” said Sam; “him dry—sleepum safe—wakum all well.”
The boys were all very well pleased to find their march at an end. They had been on the steady tramp for at least two hours, and had penetrated far into the forest. Already the sky above was overcast, and the forest shades were deepening.
All things betokened the approach of evening and of night.