226 A JACOBITE EXILE

had gone through, sometimes stories of the history of
Poland, its frequent internal wars, and its struggles with
the Turks.

Making bread and cooking occupied some portion of
the time, and much was spent in sleep. At the end of a
week the snow ceased falling and the sun came out, and all
were glad to leave the hut and enjoy the clear sky and the
keen air. While they had been confined to the hut, two
of the men had made a large number of snares for hares,
and they at once started into the forest to set these in
spots where they saw traces of the animals’ passage over
the snow. The rest went off in parties of two’s and three’s
in search of other game. With the exception of Charlie,
all were accustomed to the woods; but as Stanislas had
much less experience than the others, the captain decided
to go with them.

“Tt is easy for anyone to lose his way here,” he said;
“in fact, except to one accustomed to the woods, it would
be dangerous to go far away from the hut. As long as it
is fine you will find your way back by following your own
tracks, but if the weather changed suddenly, and it came
on to snow, your case would be hopeless. One of the ad-
vantages of placing our hut on a stream, is that it forms a
great aid to finding one’s way back. If you strike it above
you follow it down, if below upwards, until you reach the
hut. Of course you might wander for days and never hit
it, still it is much more easy to find than a small object
like the hut, though even when found it would be difficult
to decide whether it had been struck above or below the
hut. Now, there is one rule if at any time you get lost:
don’t begin to wander wildly about, for if you did, you
would certainly walk in a circle, and might never be found
again; sit down quietly and think matters over, eat if you
have got any food with you; then examine the sky, and try
to find out from the position of the sun, or the direction