Then I caught, through the lower trees, a gleam of blue, which I first thought was distant sky.  A second look and I knew it to be water, and in a moment more I stepped from the woods and stood upon the shore of the lake.  I exulted silently.  There it was at last, sparkling in the morning sun, and as beautiful as a dream.  It was so good to come upon such open space and such bright hues, after wandering in the dim, dense woods!  The eye is as delighted as an escaped bird, and darts gleefully from point to point.

The lake was a long oval, scarcely more than a mile in circumference, with evenly wooded shores, which rose gradually on all sides.  After contemplating the serene for a moment, I stepped back into the woods, and, loading my gun as heavily as I dared, discharged it three times.  The reports seemed to fill all the mountains with sound.  The frogs quickly hushed, and I listened for the response.  But no response came.  Then I tried again and again, but without evoking an answer.  One of my companions, however, who had climbed to the top of the high rocks in the rear of the spring, thought he heard faintly one report.  It seemed an immense distance below him, and far around under the mountain.  I knew I had come a long way, and hardly expected to be able to communicate with my companions in the manner agreed upon.  I therefore started back, choosing my course without any reference to the circuitous route by which I had come, and loading heavily and firing at intervals.  I must have aroused many long-dormant echoes from a Rip Van Winkle sleep.  As my powder got low, I fired and halloed alternately, till I cam near splitting both my throat and gun.  Finally, after I had begun to have a very ugly feeling of alarm and disappointment, and to cast about vaguely for some course to pursue in an emergency that seemed near at hand,—­namely the loss of my companions now I had found the lake,—­a favoring breeze brought me the last echo of a response.  I rejoined with spirit, and hastened with all speed in the direction whence the sound had come, but, after repeated trials, failed to elicit another answering sound.  This filled me with apprehension again.  I feared that my friends had been mislead by the reverberations, and I pictured them to myself, hastening in the opposite direction.  Paying little attention to my course, but paying dearly for my carelessness afterward, I rushed forward to undeceive them.  But they had not been deceived, and in a few moments an answering shout revealed them near at hand.  I heard their tramp, the bushed parted, and we three met again.

In answer to their eager inquiries, I assured them that I had seen the lake, that it was at the foot of the mountain, and that we could not miss it if we kept straight down from where we then were.