hold out till the coming of day would drive the beasts 

 to their haunts. Soon shiny eyes began to appear 

 along the margin of the outer circle of light from 

 the fire. There were dozens, scores, hundreds of 

 them. They were circling the blazing center trying 

 to see how close to it they could get, gazing all the 

 while on their victim as they made the woods re- 

 sound with their howling. Getting near me a score 

 rushed down the log with snapping teeth projecting. 

 I fought them with fire brands and clubs with burn- 

 ing ends. But they came in such overwhelming 

 numbers that the rear ones leaped over the front ones 

 to seize me. With open mouth one sprang at my 

 throat. I had just seized a fresh club from the fire. 

 As he sprang I rammed its burning end down his 

 throat. Seeing the terrible death struggle of the 

 leader, the rest of the pack fled. 



A little later I found that my fire was burning out 

 the floating bog 'which Avas of a peaty nature and we 

 were sinking, the log and myself. Soon the fire 

 would be out and then! The log had so burned that 

 I finally got it broken in two and by piling one of 

 the pieces across the other I managed to keep a 

 fire. At last daylight, though of the hazy sort, be- 

 gan to appear through the stormy sky, and never 

 has the coming of the morning looked so good to me. 



I started searching for a way to get home. It had 

 frozen considerable during the night and I found that 

 by picking places away from the rubbish it would hold 

 me up. I had not gone more than a half a mile when I 

 came to an old road half blinded by overgrown brush, 

 to an old road half blinded by overgrown brush, 



28 



