Milton.


Fleda and her grandfather had but just risen from a tolerably early
breakfast the next morning, when the two young sportsmen entered the room.

"Ha!" said Mr. Ringgan,--"I declare! you're stirring betimes. Come five
or six miles this morning a'ready. Well--that's the stuff to make
sportsmen of. Off for the woodcock, hey?--And I was to go with you and
shew you the ground.--I declare I don't know how in the world I can do it
this morning, I'm so very stiff--ten times as bad as I was yesterday. I
had a window open in my room last night, I expect that must have been the
cause. I don't see how I could have overlooked it, but I never gave it a
thought, till this morning I found myself so lame I could hardly get out
of bed.--I am very sorry, upon my word?"

"I am very sorry we must lose your company, sir," said the young
Englishman, "and for such a cause; but as to the rest!--I dare say your
directions will guide us sufficiently."

"I don't know about that," said the old gentleman. "It is pretty hard to
steer by a chart that is only laid down in the imagination. I set out once
to go in New York from one side of the city over into the other, and the
first thing I knew I found myself travelling along half a mile out of
town. I had to get in a stage and ride back and take a fresh start. Out at
the West they say when you are in the woods you can tell which is north by
the moss growing on that side of the trees; but if you're lost you'll be
pretty apt to find the moss grows on _all_ sides of the trees. I couldn't
make out any waymarks at all, in such a labyrinth of brick corners. Well,
let us see--if I tell you now it is so easy to mistake one hill for