JUMBO-JOCKO AND THE COCKERRICOS. 79 



witli resolve to seek my liouse and terminate the ad- 

 ventures of this evil day. 



Taking the direction, as I thought, of my hilltop, 

 I walked for an hour or more, the rain still falling, 

 when, chancing to glance downward, I saw the very 

 spot where my charge of shot had struck tlie earth as 

 I had fired at the serpent. This was an unwelcome 

 discovery, for it told me that I had lost my way. 



In all my wood life in various lands I have never 

 made the discovery that I was walking in a circle, 

 without feeling a sinking at the heart. And I knew, 

 from previous experience, that the best thing I could 

 do was to sit right down and try to think it out. 



It must have been the fault of the snake that 

 my course, instead of being straight and direct, as 

 usual, was now sinuous, serpentine! The sun was 

 obscured, the trees dripping water, the clouds black 

 and dense ; a gloom as of a coming deluge overhung 

 the forest. 



But so long as life and strength belong to one, it 

 is weak and foolish to give up and despair. It is 

 oftener better to sit down and wait for the clouds to 

 roll by than to plunge blindly ahead, as was proved 

 to me in this instance, for in an hour the sun shone 

 out and I was enabled to go on again. 



Ascending a hill, where the trees were not quite so 

 thick, I was soon possessed of my direction, and then 

 turned about toward my camp, which was yet a long 

 way off. Breaking out of the dense woods I came 

 to the bank of a beautiful stream, above which sloped 

 a hillside dotted with great clumps of bamboos. 



