CHAPTEE XYI 

 LOST IN A CEDAR SWAMP 



"O, while you live, tell truth and shame the devil." 



HENRY IV. 



IN the last chapter was a candid confession of 

 getting lost on my own camping grounds. 



It is now incumbent upon me to tell how I came to 

 be lost. It's a happy thing for a human being, when 

 things go awry, to be able to throw the blame from 

 one's own shoulders to those of some one else. 



In this particular case Albert, the guide, placed me 

 on the wrong road. I started wrong and kept going 

 wrong all the time, until the realization that I was 

 really lost took hold upon me. Then I decided that it 

 would be much easier and quicker to follow the mysti- 

 fying brook, than to retrace my steps to the starting 

 point at the lumber camps. 



The mistake made was in believing that the brook 

 would land me on Cuxabexis stream, about a mile and 

 a half from the dam, when in reality I turned up four 

 and a half miles further away, which made nine miles 

 extra distance to walk. 



The reader must not think that to get lost in the 

 Maine wilderness is any unusual occurrence. Seldom 

 does a hunting season pass without the writer's getting 



