Fire in the Woods / Illustrated

by James De Mille

With these words, he flung himself down upon a knoll under a neighboring tree, threw off his bag, and pitched it away to some distance from him, and then, drawing his knees up under his chin, he sat gazing fixedly at the ground.

“Well,” said Pat, “I’ve been thinkin that same for the last hour, sure; but, as ye seemed inclined to laid off, an as I hadn’t anythin more to offer, why, I jist follered afther. An sure I think it ain’t a bad idea at all, at all, to sit down, if it’s only to rist ourselves, an take a bite of somethin to ate, an thry to git up some schame for our nixt attimpt.”

With these words, Pat took a seat upon the ground, and Solomon, without any remark, sat down near them.

And there they all sat, silent, with the same thought in all their minds; and that was, that they were utterly, completely, and hopelessly lost in the woods. None of them felt inclined to speak. They felt discomfited, disheartened, mortified. So this was the end of their elaborate plans, so carefully discussed, so carefully followed—that they who came to seek their lost friend should themselves be lost also! They were confident that they had made some mistake somewhere, and at some time, and they were now busily engaged in recalling the different events of their journey, so as to see where and when the mistake had been.

Bart thought that their mistake was in not continuing to leave a trail behind them, after they had made the last change in their course. Up to that time, it seemed to him that all had gone on well, and he lamented that fatal carelessness and over-confidence that had led to this neglect.

Pat’s idea was, that they had not calculated the direction of the river, and that they had somehow missed it.

Solomon declared that, ever since he left the river, he hadn’t had any idea at all of any direction.

“Dat’s so,” he said; “I heerd you go on in dem ar long-winded ’scussions bout right Sections, an poppumdiklars, an rytanglums, an sich, but hadn’t no more notium ob whar we was goin dan a chile. An you hadn’t nudder. Yah! yah! yah!”

Solomon’s idea was, after all, much nearer the truth than the theories of either Bart or Pat. For although these two had supposed all the time that they were carrying in their very clever brains a perfectly distinct plan of their course, yet, in reality, this belief was utterly unfounded, and the supposed plan was a mockery, a delusion, and a snare. Here they were—lost!—that was the end of it.

For, in point of fact, their whole journey had been one constant series of mistakes. From the first step to the last, there had been nothing but self-delusion.