. In a moment the whole family hastily rushed
into the yard, and turned their faces toward us. If we had come down
their chimney, they could not have seemed more astonished. Not making
out what they said, I went down to the house, and learned to my
chagrin that we were still on the Mill Brook side, having crossed only
a spur of the mountain. We had not borne sufficiently to the left, so
that the main range, which, at the point of crossing, suddenly breaks
off to the southeast, still intervened between us and the lake. We
were about five miles, as the water runs, from the point of starting,
and over two from the lake. We must go directly back to the top of the
range where the guide had left us, and then, by keeping well to the
left, we would soon come to a line of marked trees, which would lead
us to the lake. So, turning upon our trail, we doggedly began the work
of undoing what we had just done,--in all cases a disagreeable task,
in this case a very laborious one also. It was after sunset when we
turned back, and before we had got halfway up the mountain, it began
to be quite dark. We were often obliged to rest our packs against the
trees and take breath, which made our progress slow. Finally a halt
was called, beside an immense flat rock which had paused on its slide
down the mountain, and we prepared to encamp for the night. A fire was
built the rock cleared off, a small ration of bread served out, our
accoutrements hung up out of the way of the hedgehogs that were
supposed to infest the locality, and then we disposed ourselves for
sleep. If the owls or porcupines (and I think I heard one of the
latter in the middle of the night) reconnoitred our camp, they saw a
buffalo robe spread upon a rock, with three old felt hats arranged on
one side, and three pairs of sorry-looking cowhide boots protruding
from the other.

When we lay down, there was apparently not a mosquito in the woods;
but the "no-see-ems," as Thoreau's Indian aptly named the midges, soon
found us out, and after the fire had gone down, annoyed us very much.
My hands and wrists suddenly began to smart and itch in a most
uncomfortable manner. My first thought was that they had been poisoned
in some way. Then the smarting extended to my neck and face, even to
my scalp, when I began to suspect what was the matter. So, wrapping
myself up more thoroughly, and stowing my hands away as best I could,
I tried to sleep, being some time behind my companions, who app