The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1918-10-12


take chance on being discovered and
threw myself down for q nap. I was
extremely nervous, though, throughout
that whole day, and would scarcely get
settled into comfortable position and
doZe off for a few minutes when,
startled by some sound in the woods, !
would suddenly awake.
After what seemed like q year or
more, night finally came, and with a
"dud" sky, low-hanging clouds and still
more rain. There was not q star in the
sky, Of course, and that made it very
bad, because without the aid Of the
stars l had absolutely no way of know
ing which direction / was going. 1t
was just case of taking a chance. I
probably would have been better of If
/ had simply picked out a place and
stayed there until the weather i'm
proved, but naturally I was impatient
to be on my way when each day with
out food only lessened my strength and
my ultimate chances of reaching the
frontier.
So / left the woods and struck off in
the direction which I 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 I was almost sure I had
the right direction and trusted to luck.
That night I found more rivers, canals
and swamps than ever found In my
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 fits unnecessary to add that ]
took on good supply Of celery and
for days I went along chewing celery
like COW would a cud.
Along towards morning, when sup
posed had gotten in a fairly good lap
Of my journey-perhaps seven or eight
miles-I began to recognize certain OBJ
jects as familiar landmarks. At least.
I thought I had seen them before and
as travelled along I knew positively ]
had seen certain objects very recently.
Off at my right-not over quarter of
a mile-I noticed some fairl y good
sized woods and thought I would go
over there to hide that day, because 1t
looked as though the sun was going to
shine and hoped to get my clothes
dry, and perhaps get decent sleep.
had this celery and large beet, so
I knew I would be able to live the day
through.
Finally made my way over to the
woods. It was still too dark in among
the trees to do much in the way Of
selecting my quarters for the day and
/ could not go a step farther. So
waited on the edge of the forest until
dawn and then set out to explore the
place, with view to finding some nook
where might sleep. Imagine my dis
gust, and encouragement, too, when an
hour or so later I came upon the exact
place where had spent the day before,
and realized that all night long I had
been circling the very woods ! was try.
ing to get away from. I think perhaps
I had gone all of a quarter Of mile In
the right direction, but then had lost
my bearings entirely. and daylight
found me with nothing accomplished.
The sun, however, did come out that
day, and I welcomed Its warm rays,
as they, perhaps, have never been well
coined before. I was very tired-just
about all in-but I spent better day
In the woods than the previous one,
That night the stars came out; ]
located my friend, the North Star, and
tried to make up for lost time. But
when enc is making only seven or eight
miles a day, or rather a night, one
night lost means a whole lot, especi-
ally when each day keeps him from
freedom. Such i'll fortune and dis
couragements as this were harder to
endure, / believe, than the actual
hunger, and the accompanying worry
naturally reduced my weight. At times
I was furiously angry with myself for
the mistakes I made and the foolish
things did, but always tried to see
something funny about the situation,
whatever 1t might be, that relieved
the strain Of habit and helped to pass
the time away. I think II a man Is
overburdened with a sense Of humor
and wants to get rid of 1t, this trip
took would be an excellent remedy
for It. Right at this time would
have welcomed anything for compan-
ion. I believe even a snake would
have been q Godsend to me.
With a name as Irish as mine, 1t is
only natural that / looked for goats
along the way, thinking that I might
be able to milk them. There are very
few cows In this country, and the op-
portunities for milking them fewer
than the cows themselves because they
are housed In barns adjoining the
homes and always alertly watched by
their fortunate owners. I did hope
that might find q goat staked out
some place In the fields, but In all my
travels ] never saw a goat or a pig,
and only few cows. Several times I
searched nests for eggs, but somebody
always had beaten me to Ii, as never
even found SO much as a nest egg.
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