and give up the
struggle.

However, I did not remain long in that mood. It is the worst mood to
encourage. I had always belonged to the "try" school. "No, I will not
give in," I exclaimed suddenly; "I will trust to Providence to carry me
out of my difficulties." Still I was so weak and I felt so helpless
that I sat and sat on till I was about to fall into a sort of lethargy,
from which I might have had no power to arouse myself. Suddenly,
however, my ears caught the well-known and justly-dreaded sound of the
rattlesnake's rattle. I sprang up all alive in a moment, and saw the
creature half a dozen paces from me, approaching through the grass. A
blow with my long stick, however, soon stopped his rattle, and
remembering how much time I had lost, I hurried on. I bethought me as I
did so, that I had offered but an ungrateful return to the poor snake
for the service he had rendered me, for had it not been for him I might
never have stirred from the stone on which I was sitting till I had
fallen off into the arms of death.

I now walked on more rapidly than before, and in about an hour saw
before me a more thickly-wooded country than I had yet passed. I
pressed forward towards it. I should find shade, and perhaps--what I so
earnestly wished for--water. The wood was extensive, and looked gloomy
enough when I first entered it, though I felt the shade most grateful
after the glare of the open prairies. The sun, also, found its way
sufficiently through the foliage, only now bursting forth, to enable me
to steer my course as before. I have described the silence of the snow
mountains. I might now speak of the language of the woods. I sat down
to adjust my feet coverings, and when my feet ceased to tread on the
grass and dead leaves, I became conscious that I was surrounded by a low
rustling noise. At first I thought that the sound was caused by the
wind among the dry leaves, but I was soon convinced that it was made by
the young buds breaking forth from the cases which had shielded them
during the cold of early spring--that I literally heard the trees
growing!

I did not rest long, for I was afraid of falling into my former state.
On I limped--unable to help uttering every now and then complaining
"Oh!" as my foot trod on a thorn or knocked against a stone. I grew
faint and more faint--"Water! water! water!" I ejaculated. How
dreadful is thirst! "I cannot stand it longer," I cried out; but I felt
it would be