We were now among the woods again, and the tangled undergrowth tried me sore.

We had been going for about three hours, and, though I was hard and spare from much travel in the sun, my legs were not used to this furious foot marching.

My feet grew leaden, and, to make matters worse, we dipped presently into a big swamp, where we mired to the knees and often to the middle.

It would have been no light labour at any time to cross such a place, pulling oneself by the tangled shrubs on to the rare patches of solid ground.
But now, when I was pretty weary, the toil was about the limit of my strength.

When we emerged on hard land I was sobbing like a stricken deer.