Of course, they all had a good laugh at this, because the direction they were taking, and the position in which the Professor found them, were sufficient to indicate that they were really lost, and that he knew it.
"I felt satisfied," was his final remark, "that you had not a well-defined idea of your direction when you fired the last time, but you will learn in time how to keep your direction, and what is more, you will never again permit an excited condition of the mind to make you take a crooked path."
The boys looked wonderingly at the Professor.
"How," asked Harry, "does an excited mind make anyone take a crooked path?"
"When the mind is excited, it is, for the time, deranged, like soldiers, frequently on the field of battle, who are wounded, without having the least knowledge of it. The sense of direction is a well-developed trait in some people; in others, it does not exist at all. But in the case of either, the moment the mind is excited, it becomes abnormal; some lose the ability to judge distances, some are unable to talk, and others can't do anything but talk. All judgment for the time disappears. Now, take that person in a forest, and highly excite him, and he has absolutely no judgment of distance or direction, and is not in a good position to mark and follow a course with intelligence. I have spoken thus fully on the subject, in order to warn you, that under no circumstances should you ever set out on such a mission as you have with the least cloud of excitement. It is far better not to go at all."
It was a warning the boys never forgot.