216 BIRCH BROWSINGS. 



when he turned and ran back into the house 

 without pausing to reply. In a moment the 

 whole family hastily rushed into the yard, 

 and turned their faces toward us. If we 

 had come down their chimney, they could 

 not have seemed more astonished. Not mak- 

 ing out what they said, I went down to the 

 house, and learned to my chagrin that we 

 were still on the Mill Brook side, having 

 crossed only a spur of the mountain. We 

 had not borne sufficiently to the left, so that 

 the main range, which at the point of cross- 

 ing suddenly breaks off to the southeast, 

 still intervened between us and the lake. 

 We were about five miles, as the water runs, 

 from the point of starting, and over two 

 from the lake. We must go directly back 

 to the top of the range where the guide had 

 left us, and then, by keeping well to the left, 

 we would soon come to a line of marked 

 trees, which would lead us to the lake. So 

 turning upon our trail, we doggedly began 

 the work of undoing what we had just done, 

 in all cases a disagreeable task, in this 

 case a very laborious one also. It was after 

 sunset when we turned back, and before we 

 had got half-way up the mountain it began 

 to be quite dark. We were often obliged to 



