198 LOST IN THE WILDERNESS 



seemed to me as a much longer time and then I 

 realized that I was lost. My father had often 

 advised me what to do if this should ever happen 

 to me, cautioning me particularly against running 

 aimlessly around and becoming frightened, in- 

 stead of sitting down and making a fire if cold. 

 The night was cold, though I had not felt it 

 while walking. I had a box of matches in my 

 pocket and soon had a fire alight, and collected a 

 lot of dead wood by the light which it gave. Then 

 I began to think of what I had been doing. Sup- 

 posing that I had travelled in a wrong direction, 

 I might be five or six miles from the house. I 

 knew they would be very anxious about me and 

 would look for a signal if I made one. Setting 

 fire to a large birch tree, if there are any about, 

 is a very good signal, but there happened to be 

 none nearby on this occasion, so I thought of us- 

 ing my gun. My powder horn was still about 

 half full, containing about eighteen or twenty 

 charges, so loading up I fired three shots in quick 

 succession. I had hardly done so, when an an- 

 swering shot came, very loud, then another, and 

 after that some shouting. I picked up my gun 

 and birds and started off in the direction of the 

 noise, the shouting being kept up at intervals 

 until I met my father and two of the hands from 

 the Post with lanterns, coming up our wood road. 

 They had, indeed, been very anxious about me as 

 they thought I had met with some accident, but 



