The entrance of a huge bite put a sudden and full stop to the sentence.
“Why did you not stop at some of the houses higher up the river to feed?” asked Lambert.
Warder explained that they meant to have done so, but they had missed their way. They had grown stupid, he thought, from weakness. When they lost the way they made straight for the river, guided by the pole-star, and the first house they came in sight of was that of Willow Creek.
“How can the pole-star guide one?” asked Cora, in some surprise.
“Don’t you know?” said Lambert, going round to where Cora sat, and sitting down beside her. “I will explain.”
“If I did know I wouldn’t ask,” replied Cora coquettishly; “besides, I did not put the question to you.”
“Nay, but you don’t object to my answering it, do you?”
“Not if you are quite sure you can do so correctly.”
“I think I can, but the doubts which you and your sister so often throw on my understanding make me almost doubt myself,” retorted Lambert, with a laughing glance at Elsie. “You must know, then, that there is a constellation named the Great Bear. It bears about as much resemblance to a bear as it does to a rattlesnake, but that’s what astronomers have called it. Part of it is much more in the shape of a plough, and one of the stars in that plough is the pole-star. You can easily distinguish it when once you know how, because two of the other stars are nearly in line with it, and so are called ‘pointers.’ When you stand looking at the pole-star you are facing the north, and of course, when you know where the north is, you can tell all the other points of the compass.”
It must not be supposed that the rest of the party listened to this astronomical lecture. The gallant Louis had sought to interest Elsie as well as Cora, but Elsie was too much engrossed with the way-worn hunters and their sad tale to think of anything else. When they had eaten enough to check the fierce cravings of hunger they related more particulars.