I was sauntering quietly along, when suddenly a little butterfly fluttered past me.

It was the first I had seen in this country, and my eagerness to catch it was proportionately great.

I hastened after it; thought neither of swamp nor of danger, and in the heat of the chase did not observe that the mounds became every moment fewer and farther between.

Soon I found myself in the middle of the swamp, and could neither advance nor retreat.
Not a human being could I descry; the very animals were far from me; and this circumstance confirmed me as to the dangerous nature of the ground.
Nothing remained for me but to fix my eyes upon one point of the landscape, and to step out boldly towards it.

I was often obliged to hazard two or three steps into the swamp itself, in order to gain the next acclivity, upon which I would then stand triumphantly, to determine my farther progress.