Chapter 3

Naturally there were a good many things I wanted to know about
'the ol' man o' the woods,' but Uncle Eb would take no part in any
further conversation.

So I had to lie down beside him again and think out the problem as
best I could. My mind was never more acutely conscious and it
gathered many strange impressions, wandering in the kingdom of
Fear, as I looked up at the tree-tops. Uncle Eb had built a furious
fire and the warmth of it made me sleepy at last. Both he and old
Fred had been snoring a long time when I ceased to hear them.
Uncle Eb woke me at daylight, in the morning, and said we must
be off to find the trail. He left me by the fire a little while and went
looking on all sides and came back no wiser. We were both thirsty
and started off on rough footing, without stopping to eat. We
climbed and crawled for hours, it seemed to me, and everywhere
the fallen tree trunks were heaped in our way. Uncle Eb sat down
on one of them awhile to rest.

'Like the bones o' the dead,' said he, as he took a chew of tobacco
and picked at the rotten skeleton of a fallen tree. We were both
pretty well out of breath and of hope also, if I remember rightly,
when we rested again under the low hanging boughs of a basswood
for a bite of luncheon. Uncle Eb opened the little box of honey and
spread some of it on our bread and butter. In a moment I noticed
that half a dozen bees had lit in the open box.

'Lord Harry! here's honey bees,' said he, as he covered the box so as
to keep them in, and tumbled everything else into the basket.
'Make haste now, Willie, and follow me with all yer might,' he
added.

In a minute he let out one of the bees, and started running in the
direction it flew. It went but a few feet and then rose into the
tree-top.

'He's goin' t' git up into the open air,' said Uncle Eb. 'But I've got
his bearins' an' I guess he knows the way all right.'

We took the direction indicated for a few minutes and then Uncle
Eb let out another prisoner. The bee flew off a little way and then
rose in a slanting course to the tree-tops. He showed us, however,
that we were looking the right way.

'Them little fellers hev got a good compass,' said Uncle Eb, as we
followed the line of the bees. 'It p'ints home ev'ry time, an' never
makes a mistake.'

We went further this time before releasing another. He showed us
that we had borne out of our course a little and as we turned to
follow there were half a dozen bees flying around the box, as if
begging for admission.

'Here they are back agin,' said Uncle Eb, 'an' they've told a lot o'
their cronies 'bout the man an' the boy with honey.'

At length one of them flew over our heads and back in the