CHAPTER III.
A DREARY NIGHT IN THE WOODS--CRITICAL SITUATION THE NEXT DAY.
Almost immediately on entering the wood, I not only found myself embosomed in the darkness of the night, but I also found myself entangled in a thick forest of undergrowth, which had been quite thoroughly wetted by the afternoon rain.
I penetrated through the wood, thick and thin, and more or less wet, to the distance I should think of three miles.

By this time my clothes were all thoroughly soaked through, and I felt once more a gloom and wretchedness; the recollection of which makes me shudder at this distant day.

My young friends in this highly favoured Christian country, surrounded with all the comforts of home and parental care, visited by pastors and Sabbath-school teachers, think of the dreary condition of the blacksmith boy in the dark wood that night; and then consider that thousands of his brethren have had to undergo much greater hardships in their flight from slavery.
I was now out of the hands of those who had so cruelly teased me during the day; but a number of fearful thoughts rushed into my mind to alarm me.
It was dark and cloudy, so that I could not see the _north star_.

How do I know what ravenous beasts are in this wood?
How do I know what precipices may be within its bounds?
I cannot rest in this wood to-morrow, for it will be searched by those men from whom I have escaped; but how shall I regain the road?
How shall I know when I am on the right road again?
These are some of the thoughts that filled my mind with gloom and alarm.
At a venture I struck an angle northward in search of the road.

After several hours of zigzag and laborious travel, dragging through briars, thorns and running vines, I emerged from the wood and found myself wading marshy ground and over ditches.
I can form no correct idea of the distance I travelled, but I came to a road, I should think about three o'clock in the morning.