Even the scream of some hawk high overhead had been welcome to me, and the harsh cry of a jay that I scared was like the voice of a friend.
It was the fault of none but myself that I was lost.

I had planned to go hunting alone in the woods while the old nurse, whose care I was far beyond, slept after her midday meal before the fire.

So, over my warm woollen clothing I had donned the deerskin short cloak that was made like my father's own hunting gear, and I had taken my bow and arrows, and the little seax {i} that a thane's son may always wear, and had crept away from the warm hall without a soul seeing me.

I had thought myself lucky in this, but by this time I began to change my mind in all truth.

Well it was for me that there was no wind, so that I was spared the worst of the cold.
I went up the hill to the north of the village by the track which the timber sleds make, climbing until I was on the crest, and there I began to wander as the tracks of rabbit and squirrel led me on.
Sometimes I was set aside from the path by deep drifts that had gathered in its hollows with the wind of yesterday, and so I left it altogether in time.