XIX: MR STUBBS'S MISCHIEF, AND HIS SAD FATE
Toby had begun to realize that he was lost in the woods, and
the thought was sufficient to cause alarm in the mind of one much
older than the boy. He said to himself that he would keep on in
the direction he was then traveling for fifteen minutes; and as he
had no means of computing the time he sat down on a log, took out
the bit of pencil with which he had written the letter to Ella, and
multiplied sixty by fifteen. He knew that there were sixty seconds
to the minute, and that he could ordinarily count one to each
second; therefore, when he learned that there were nine hundred
seconds in fifteen minutes he resolved to walk as nearly straight
ahead as possible until he should have counted that number.
He walked on, counting as regularly as he could, and thought
to himself that he never before realized how long fifteen minutes
were.
It really seemed to him that an hour had passed before he finished
counting, and then when he stopped there were no more signs that
he was near a clearing than there had been before he started.
"Ah, Mr. Stubbs, we're lost! we're lost!" he cried, as he laid his
cheek on the monkey's head and gave way to the lonesome grief that
came over him. "What shall we do? Perhaps we won't ever find our
way out, but will die here, an' then Uncle Dan'l won't ever know
how sorry I was that I ran away.
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