Page:The heart of Monadnock (IA heartofmonadnock00timl).pdf/135

 things happened—ain't necessary to go into that—but he was frightened to death, and way off. I kep' my eye opened wider and I was sure he was lost—just as you said. Was just runnin' round and round and gettin' worse off every moment. Just like you said. Couldn't find his way back and it was pretty brambly."

The speaker stopped to disentangle himself. His guide listened in absorbed interest to the jerky narrative.

"Just here I found something to put my hand on. No one else knew. My partner was sick for a long time, so that was easy. Got on to it good and sure. Had him up before me. I been a boy myself and I know how it is—mighty easy! Mighty easy!" The kindly face began to look radiant to the absorbed listener. Utterly unegotistical in this aspect, the talker was merely interested in following out haltingly the application he had oddly enough detected.

"Well, in another week he'd have gotten where I couldn't have saved him. He'd of