But it was one thing to order a retreat, as we soldiers would call it, and quite another to go back by the route we had come.  We followed first one track and then another; but the underbrush grew thicker and thicker, and at length the conviction was forced upon us that we were completely astray.  I climbed a tree—­it was no easy task, as any one who has ever attempted to climb a pine will agree.  I got up some distance, after a fashion; but the branches were so thick and the trees so close together that there was nothing to be discerned, except that I was surrounded by what seemed miles of green boughs, which swayed in the breeze, making me think of the waves of an emerald sea.

I scrambled down and submitted my discouraging report.  The sun was now overhead:  it must therefore be noon.  We began to feel that even a frugal meal would be welcome.  I had managed to get a cup of coffee before leaving my quarters; but Father Friday, I suspected, had taken nothing.  We succeeded in finding some berries here and there; and, farther on, a spring of water.  However, this primitive fare was of little avail to satisfy one’s appetite.

Well, after wandering about, and shouting and hallooing till we were tired, in the effort to attract the attention of any one who might chance to be in the vicinity, we rested at the foot of a tree.  Father Friday recited some prayers, to which I made the responses.  Then he withdrew a little, and read his Office as serenely as if he were in the garden of the convent; while I, weary and disheartened, threw myself on the ground and tried again to determine by the sun where we were.  I must have fallen asleep; for the next thing I knew the sun was considerably lower, and Father Friday was waiting to make another start.

“How strange,” he kept repeating as we proceeded, “that we should be so entirely astray in a wood only a few miles in extent, and within such a short distance from home!  It is most extraordinary.  I cannot understand it.”

It was, indeed, singular; but I was too dispirited to speculate upon the subject.  Soldier though I prided myself upon being, and strong, active fellow that I certainly was, Father Friday was as far ahead of me in his endurance of the hardship of our position as in everything else.

Dusk came, and we began to fear that we should have to remain where we were all night.  Again I climbed a tree, hoping to catch a glimpse of a light somewhere.  All was dark, however; and I was about to descend when—­surely there was a faint glimmer yonder!  As the diver peers amid the depths of the sea in search of buried jewels, so I eagerly looked down among the green branches.  Yes, now it became a ray, and probably shone from some dwelling in the heart of the wood.  I called the good news to Father Friday.

“Deo gratias!” he exclaimed.  “Where is it?”

“Over there,” said I, pointing in the direction of the light.