A Thousand-Mile Walk 



bed, and searched only for a dry spot on which 

 to sleep safely hidden from wild, runaway ne 

 groes. I walked rapidly for hours in the wet, 

 level woods, but not a foot of dry ground could 

 I find. Hollow-voiced owls were calling with 

 out intermission. All manner of night sounds 

 came from strange insects and beasts, one 

 by one, or crowded together. All had a home 

 but I. Jacob on the dry plains of Padan- 

 aram, with a stone pillow, must have been 

 comparatively happy. 



When I came to an open place where pines 

 grew, it was about ten o clock, and I thought 

 that now at last I would find dry ground. But 

 even the sandy barren was wet, and I had to 

 grope in the dark a long time, feeling the ground 

 with my hands when my feet ceased to plash, 

 before I at last discovered a little hillock dry 

 enough to lie down on. I ate a piece of bread 

 that I fortunately had in my bag, drank some 

 of the brown water about my precious hillock, 

 and lay down. The noisiest of the unseen 

 witnesses around me were the owls, who pro- 

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