266 FORTY-FOUR YEARS OP 



nntil it ceased to rain, and commenced snowing and 

 freezing ; when the cold becoming severe, and the fire 

 having died away, I grew chilly, and, awakening, at- 

 tempted to mend the lire, but found the hair on one side 

 of my head sticking fast to the tree. 



At first, my temper being pretty well tried, and my 

 patience (with which I was never overstocked) having 

 failed me, I was as mad as a bear shot through the belly, 

 and bawled out, as if twenty persons had been looking on : 



"What other curse from is on me now?" I made 



the second trial to rise from my place. There I was, like 

 Absalom in the oak, fast by my locks. I soon calmed my 

 temper, and putting my hand up to find what held me, I 

 discovered my hair fast in the pitch that had been heated 

 by the fire. I had laid my head in it while it was soft and 

 running, and had slept until the cold had chilled the pitch, 

 with my hair sunk deep into it ; and there I was, safe aa 

 a mouse in a mill. 



But when I discovered what was the cause of my con- 

 finement, I laughed to myself at the thought of the strange 

 kind of fix I had got myself into. I then began to try to 

 release my head, but not one lock would come out, except 

 by pulling off the pitch, or pulling the hair out of my 

 scalp ; so I took sometimes the one and sometimes the 

 other plan, as it happened, until at last I got my liberty. 

 I then mended my fire, being still half-angry ; though I 

 could not help laughing to myself, when I thought that, 

 if I could only see a fellow with his head fast to a tree, 

 like a breachy dog which had been tied there for bad 

 behavior, what fun it would be for me to help him out of 

 such a scrape ! 



After I had gained my liberty, and the fire burned up 

 lively, I reasoned thus : " What in the world is the use of 

 my punishing mysel*" thus ? Now, I have not eaten one 

 mouthfull since the aay before yesterday, and it was no- 



