WAYS AND MEANS 



you can sort yourself out; but unless the 

 chance be snatched, the ability to frame an 

 intelligent purpose may disappear for 

 hours, or days. 



One who suffered this misery told 

 how it fared with him for a night and a 

 day: — 'I tried to find the river — found it, 

 and was almost swept away in a rapid — 

 took to the mountain-side and lost the river 

 — sought to recover it— climbed and saw 

 distant water- — made for it — -a lake and not 

 the river — climbed again— another lake — 

 another mountain' ; and so on, till a search- 

 party made a lucky cast and chanced upon 

 him, miles from river, camp, or any 

 trail, striving through burnt windfall, 

 famished, his clothes in shreds, quite dis- 

 traught, but still clinging to rod, net, 

 and the big trout which belated him at the 

 fishing. 



'The sun set and rose clear. You knew 

 the river flowed due north and south, — 

 that you were west of it?' 



'I knew all that once, and know it now, 

 but the ideas never crossed my mind.' 



Toward midnight, being very cold, he 



lit a fire which spread up the hill-side — 



too far away for our watch to see even its 



reflection — but never bethought him to 



225 



15 



