The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1918-08-16

This stunt Of crossing the river and
diving for the lost shoe had consumed
about three hours, and after resting
some fifteen minutes l went on my way
again. had gone nearly mile when
l came to another river about the
same size as the one had just crossed.
/ walked along the bank awhile, think
ing I might be lucky enough to find a
boat or a bridge, but after walking
about half an hour l received one Of
those disappointments which come
once in a lifetime" l found that this
river was the one had just swum! 1
had swum it on the bend and was still
on the wrong side. Had I made only a
short detour in the first place would
have avoided all the annoyance of the
past three hours and saved my
strength and time. 1 was never so
mad in my life at myself as 1 was to
think that 1 had not paid more atten-
ton to the course of the stream be-
fore l undertook to cross it, but as a
matter of fact, there was really no
way of telling. The river was not
shown on the map at all.
Now l had to cross it, whereas be-
fore could have turned it. l walked
boldly into the water, not bothering to
take my clothes off this time, nor did
l ever bother to take them off after
wards when swimming canals and
rivers. 1 found it was impossible to
keep them dry anyway, and so l might
just as well swim in them and save
time.
All the next day I spent in forest,
to which my nights travel had brought
me about 5 o'clock in the morning. 1
kept on my way through the woods
until daylight came, and then, thinking
the place would afford fairly good con-
cealment, I concluded to rest until
night.
The prospects of even a good sleep
were dismal, however, for about the
time the suns face should have ap-
peared, a drizZling rain began and I
gave up my search for dry spot
which would serve me as a bed. Some
of the leaves were beginning to fall,
but of course there was not enough Of
them to form covering for the
ground, and the dampness seemed to
have penetrated everywhere.
1 wandered around through the
woods for two or three hours looking
for shelter, but without any success,
for, although the trees were large, the
forest was not dense, and there was
practically no brush or shrubbery.
Consequently one could get a fairly
clear view for some distance, and
knew it would be unwise to drop off
to sleep just any place, or someone
would surely happen on to me.
Once l came very near to the ends
| of the woods and heard voices of men
driving by in a wagon, but I couldn't
make out just what they were, and
instinct told me l had better not come
out of the woods, so I turned back.
Here and there small artificial bitches
had been dug, which at a dry season
might have Graded a weary fugitive,
but now they, too, were filled with
water. Once I singled out good big
tree and large branches and thought
might climb into it and go to sleep,
but the longer 1 looked at it the more
l realized that it would require more
energy than had in my present weak
and exhausted condition, so didn't at
tempt that.
Finally I chose a spot that looked a
bit drier than the rest, concluded to
take a chance on being discovered and
threw myself down for a nap. l was
extremely nervous, though, throughout
that whole day, and would scarcely get
settled into a comfortable position and
doze off for a 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 a
"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 l was going. 1t
was just case of taking a chance. l
probably would have been better off if
l had simply picked out 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
nv ultimate chances of reaching the
frontier.
So left the woods and struck off in
the direction which 1 thought was
north. l hadn't been at all sure of my
bearings the day before, and as it had
rained the sun failed entirely to help
me out, but l was almost sure | had
| the right direction and trusted to luck.
| That night l found more rivers, canals
and swampS than | ever found in my
! life before, but l had the good fortune
! to stumble on to some celery, and after
my diet of beetS it surely was treat.
Perhaps it's unnecessary to add that
took on q good supply of celery and
! for days I went along chewing celery
| like a COW would cud.
Along towards morning, when l sup
posed l had gotten in fairly good lap
of my jOurney-perhaps seven or eight
miles-I began to recognize certain OBJ
| iects as familiar landmarks. At least,
l thought l had seen them before and
as l travelled along l knew positively l
had seen certain objects very recently.
| Off at my right-nOt over quarter of
a mile-I noticed some fairly good
! sized woods and thought l would go
over there to hide that day, because It
looked as though the sun was going to
shine and l hoped to get my clothes
dry, and perhaps get decent sleep.
| had this celery and large beet, so
I knew l would be able to live the day
| through.
Finally I made my way over to the
woods. 1t 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 step farther. So l