young settler turned homeward rather regretfully. It might be many
months again before he got a chance of talking to anybody beyond his
father and mother, and the boys had brought a dash of outside life into
his woodland solitude.

The travellers proceeded on foot through a dense forest, which, luckily
for Dol, had little undergrowth and mostly a soft carpet of moss or dry
pine needles. Still they had plenty of climbing over windfalls, with
many rough pokes and jibes from forward boughs and rotten limbs, to rob
the way of sameness. Through this labyrinth they were safely piloted by
Uncle Eb and Joe, the latter with his compass in his hand, and the
former simply studying the "Indian's compass," which is observing how
the moss grows upon the tree-trunks, there being always a greater
quantity on the side which faces north.

Before nightfall they reached another log cabin, tenanted by a man who
had just settled down for the purpose of clearing up a farm. Here they
were lodged for the night, without trouble of making camp.

The third day of their journey was marked by two sensations. They halted
for a short rest at a point where there was an extensive break in the
forest. Scarcely had they emerged from the gloom of a dense growth of
cedars, when Dol exclaimed.--

"Good gracious! That looks as if people had been building a jolly high
railroad out here."

On the right rose a bare, steep ridge of sand and gravel, nearly ninety
feet in height, and closely resembling a railway embankment.