And, if you recall it, the nor'wester was blowing for three days on end, stiff enough-to flay you." "Yes, and then ?" The narrative he had framed did not carry him further, or perhaps he could not bring himself to speak the final words, for it was some time before the low-voiced answer came--"He went astray ..." Those who have passed their lives within the shadow of the Canadian forests know the meaning but too well.

The daring youths to whom this evil fortune happens in the woods, who go astray-are lost-but seldom return.

Sometimes a search-party finds their bodies in the spring, after the melting of the snows.

In Quebec, and above all in the far regions of the north, the very word, ecarte, has taken on a new and sinister import, from the peril overhanging him who loses his way, for a short day only, in that limitless forest.
"He went astray ...

The storm caught him in the burnt country and he halted for a day.