A Thousand-Mile Walk 
bed, and searched only for a dry spot on which 
to sleep safely hidden from wild, runaway ne- 
groes. I walked rapidly for hours in the wet, 
level woods, but not a foot of dry ground could 
I find. Hollow-voiced owls were calling with- 
out intermission. All manner of night sounds 
came from strange insects and beasts, one 
by one, or crowded together. All had a home 
but I. Jacob on the dry plains of Padan- 
aram, with a stone pillow, must have been 
comparatively happy. 
When I came to an open place where pines 
grew, it was about ten o’clock, and I thought 
that now at last I would find dry ground. But 
even the sandy barren was wet, and I had to 
grope in the dark a long time, feeling the ground 
with my hands when my feet ceased to plash, 
before I at last discovered a little hillock dry 
enough to lie down on. I ate a piece of bread 
that I fortunately had in my bag, drank some 
of the brown water about my precious hillock, 
and lay down. The noisiest of the unseen 
witnesses around me were the owls, who pro- 
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