"An' you have no time to lose now," said he, "for the sun is low, and mind
you don't get lost in the woods."
"Is it lost now," said I, "that I'd be gittin, an' me uncle as great a
navigator at iver steered a ship across the thrackless say! Not a bit of
it, though I'm obleeged to ye for your kind advice, an thank yez for the
ride."
An' wid that he drove off an' left me alone. I shouldered my bundle
bravely, an' whistling a bit of tune for company like, I pushed into the
bush. Well, I went a long way over bogs, and turnin' round among the bush
and trees till I began to think I must be well nigh to Dennis's. But, bad
cess to it! all of a sudden, I came out of the woods at the very identical
spot where I started in, which I knew by an ould crotched tree that seemed
to be standin' on its head an' kicking up its heels to make divarsion of
me. By this time it was growing dark, and as there was no time to lose, I
started in a second time, determined to keep straight south this time and
no mistake. I got on bravely for awhile, but och hone! och hone! it got so
dark I couldn't see the trees, and I bumped me nose and barked me shins,
while the miskaties bit me hands and face to a blister; and after tumblin'
and stumblin' around till I was fairly bamfoozled, I sat down on a log, all
of a trimble, to think that was lost intirely, and that maybe a lion or
some other wild craythur would devour me before morning.
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