"I was awakened by the harsh crackling of some dry sticks upon which the boy had stepped as he continued to shuffle forward. The recovery was as sudden as the attack. In an instant I was disenchanted. The bush looked familiar, and I heard the fall of water in the stream, but a thought of imminent danger now possessed my mind; so shouting with a voice that made the woods ring, I seized the lad around the waist, and heavy as he was, ran with him quite a quarter of a mile without stopping. I confess it most frankly that I didn't stop until I fell exhausted in the public road. To tell the cowardly truth, I should have ran on until now if I had been able. So we fell down together and lay for a good while panting. "Then I got up and propping myself against a poplar, took little John on my knee. His nervous system was unstrung. He was weeping bitterly, and sobbing as if his heart would break. His flesh was cold and clammy, his pulse was almost still, and he hadn't strength to raise his hands to his mouth. "I had some root ginger in my pocket--I always carry a piece with me--which I chewed and made him swallow. This revived him. Then I rubbed him briskly, pinched his skin in divers tender spots, and by these means and cheerful conversation, got him so that he could stand alone and answer my questions. I never saw such a fool thing as he was! He was not at all alarmed, very willingly consented to return with me--for I'd die but what I'd see it but--thought there ought to be a perch on his hook by this time, thought it was Sunday, thought there was snow somewhere, 'twas so cold,--and all such notions as that. "Every few minutes he would burst into an uncontrollable flood of tears, but he couldn't tell for what. "You will want to know how I felt all this time. Well, when I got a minute's leisure from attending to him and could notice my own feelings, I found that I was snivelling too! that my pulse was small, my nose had been profusely bleeding, and the blood had drenched me to the very boot tops, and I felt altogether as exhausted as one does who has had a month's spell of the chills. "We were a precious pair, daddy and son, as we sat under that poplar. I am sure I never felt so foolish in all my life. Well, back we started, for my spunk was up; and, beside that, I had left my hat, handkerchief, dinner, and memorandum book, and was bound to have them. I felt the most burning curiosity to understand the puzzle while my mental faculties were completely obfuscated by it.