came to a
place where the black bottom looked safe. She stepped in and got to
the other side without difficulty.

For quite a while now, Janet's journey might best be described by
saying that she walked. The scenery was grass. Evidently she had
missed the road. Still, though the fence was not yet in sight, she did
not give up hope; a wire fence does not become visible at a very great
distance. Her wet shoes were very annoying. The imprisoned water
inwardly sucked and squirted at every step, and made queer sounds.
Unable to endure it longer she sat down and took them off, and while
they were draining, upside down, she removed the stockings and wrung
them out. Although she did not get them thoroughly dry, the walking
was somewhat natural again at least.

Her shadow became long and stretched out indefinitely beside her. The
sun came down from above and appeared in its own form; then quickly it
sank. She kept steadily on. She knew it could not be far now to the
fence; and once she was on the road she would feel safer. But while
she walked the gray of evening came on; then somewhere in the distance
a coyote barked. Her courage began to depart, as the dusk deepened; it
seemed to her as if all the loneliness in the world had come home to
roost. It was no use to watch for the fence now; it would apprise her
of its presence when she came to it. Regardless of the possibility of
running into its iron barbs, she walked faster; at times she ran. A
star came out faintly. It was night.

The swish-swish of her feet in the grass, the rustle of her skirts,
became prominent sounds. She missed the company of her watch; she
wound it up and got it to ticking; anything to ward off the solitude.
The thought of camping out she did not like to entertain; but thoughts
are unavoidable. Once she stood quite still to make a little trial of
it, but her pause was not long; she soon got her feet to going again.
She missed the sound of trees, the breezes playing upon them. If there
had only been something,--she knew not what,--it would have seemed more
world-like. There was an absence of everything familiar.

To stop and rest was now out of the question. It were better to walk
and keep thinking of the road. That would be human ground. So she
thought of the road and tried to keep her mind flowing in its channel.
How far might it be now? How long?

In the midst of this suspense she sighted a light ahead--a camp-fire.
It was