little compass he carried all the time nowadays; for having been lost
once upon a time in the woods, he was determined not to take chances
that way again.

"Oh, there are plenty of ways for keeping a course you set, even when
the sun is behind the clouds," Max told him. "It's a poor hand that
depends alone on seeing sun or moon to know his way in the forest. I can
tell from the bark on these trees which is north; then the green moss on
the trunks tells me the same thing; and even the general way the trees
lean points it out; for you'll notice that nine out of ten, if they bend
at all, do so toward the southeast; that's because all of our heavy
winter storms come from the northwest."

"All that's mighty interesting, Max," remarked Steve; "wish I knew as
much as you do about traveling through the woods, and the things a
fellow is apt to meet up with there. The more I hear you tell, the more
I make up my mind I'm going to take lessons in woodcraft; but I never
seem to fully catch on."

"Well, it comes easier with some persons than with others," remarked
Max, who was too kind to say what he really thought; which was that in
his opinion boys, or men either for that matter, who are hasty and
impetuous by nature, never make clever hands in the woods, where patient
labor at times is the only method of solving some of the puzzling things
that confront one.

"Now we're getting near the upper end of the island," remarked Owen, a
while later.

"How do you find that out!" asked Bandy-legs, looking around him