The Morgan City daily review. (Morgan City, La.) 1916-1920, 1918-07-03

ho&
rlVer was the 81" had Just swum ,nis
haa S"u'n 1t on the bend and was ..,, !
On the wrong side. Had mado on sun
short detou in The first place Uriiy
have avoided alI The anuov,noa wouio
past three hours and soyoS u 'ne
strength and time was nero. my
mad in my life at myself rs 7 WI vi 50
think that l had not paid moro u.s. 70
tioh TO the course of the stream W.
fore / undertook TO cross if hut oe-
matter of fact, there was reo,,r '
way of telling, The river was Nv
shown On the map at all. A0'
Now l had to cross it, whero,s
fore l could have turned it. wa,,' We
boldly into the water, not botherina
take my clothes off this time nov ~,
l ever bother to take them off af,as
wards when swimming canals ona
rivers. l found it was impossih,o -
keep them dry anyway, and so T mich,
just as We'll swim in them and save
time.
All the next day l spent in a fores,
to which my nights travel had hroucht
me about 5 o'clock in the morn;no
kept on my way through the woods
until daylight came, and then, thinkiny
the place would afford fairly good CON.
cealment, / concluded to rest until
night.
The prospects of even good sleen
were dismal, however, for about the
time the suns face should have an.
peared, Il drilling rain began and
gave up my search for dry spot
which would serve me as bed. Some
Of the leaves We're beginning to fan
but of course there was not enough of
them to form Il covering for the
ground, and the dampness seemed to
have penetrated everywhere.
| wandered around through the
woods for two or three hours looking
for shelter, but without any success,
for, although the trees were large, theI
forest was not dense, and there wasI
practically no brush or shrubbery. /
Consequently one could get a fairlyI
clear view for some distance, and II
knew it would be unwise to drop oil
to sleep just any place, or someone /
would surely happen on to me.
Once I came very near to the endsI
Of the woods and heard voices Of menI
driving by In wagon, but couldn't
make out just what they were, andI
instinct told me I had better not GOMEZ
out Of the woods, so I turned back |
Here and there small artificial bitches
had been dug, which at q dry season.
might have Graded weary fugitive.
but now they. too, were filed with
water. Once I singled out good big
tree and large branches and thought !
might climb into 1t and 60 to sleep.
but the longer l looked at it the more
I realized that it would require more
energy than had in my present weak
and exhausted condition, so didn't at
tempt that.
Finally chose a spot that looked 4
bit drier than the rest, concluded to
take q chance on being discovered and
threw myself down for nap. was
extremely nervous. though, throughout
that whole day, and would scarcely get
settled into a comfortable position and
doze off for few minutes when,
startled by some sound in the woods,
would suddenly awake.
After what seemed like a year or
more, night finally came, and with
"dud" sky, low-hanging clouds and still
more rain. There was not star in the
sky, of course, and that made it very
bad, because without the aid of the
stars had absolutely no way of know
ing which direction I was going. 1t
was just a case of taking chance. !
probably would have been better oil II
had simply picked out place and
stayed there until the weather i'm
proved, but naturally l was impatient
to be on my way when each day with
out food only lessened my strength and
NY uItludlc CuduScS VI ASoSAAn6 ~-'S
frontier.
So left the woods and struck of In
the direction which l thought was
north. hadn't been at all sure Of my
bearings the day before, and as 1t had
rained the sun failed entirely to help
me out but was almost sure ! had
the right direction and trusted to luck
That night found more rivers, canals
and swamps than I ever found In ny
life before. but I had the good fortune
to stumble on to some celery, and after
my diet Of beets 1t surely was treat
Perhaps it's unnecessary to add that J
took on a good supply Of celery ana
for days I went along chewing celery
like a COW would q cud
Along towards morning. when l mp'
posed had gotten in fairly good lap
Of my journey-perhaps seven or eight
miles-I began to recognize certain oD-
jects as familiar landmarks. At leasLI
I thought / had seen them before anoI
as I travelled along knew positively 4
had seen certain objects very recentiyI
Off at my right-not over quarter on
mile-I noticed some fairly goouI
sized woods and thought / would gu
over there to hide that day, because ~
looked as though the sun was going vi
shine and l hoped to get my ciothe'