And as I sat there I
began to have familiar gnawings at the pit of my stomach, and I
remembered that, save for a couple of Mrs. Clark's doughnuts
eaten while I was sitting on the hillside, ages ago, I had had
nothing since my early breakfast.
With this thought of my predicament--and the glimpse I had of
myself "hungry and homeless"--the humour of the whole situation
suddenly came over me, and, beginning with a chuckle, I wound up,
as my mind dwelt upon my recent adventures, with a long, loud,
hearty laugh.
As I laughed--and what a roar it made in that darkness!--I got up
on my feet and looked up at the sky. One bright star shone out
over the woods, and in high heavens I could see dimly the white
path of the Milky Way. And all at once I seemed again to be in
command of myself and of the world. I felt a sudden lift and
thrill of the spirits, a warm sense that this too was part of the
great adventure--the Thing Itself.
"This is the light," I said looking up again at the sky and the
single bright star, "which is set for me to-night. I will make my
bed by it."
I can hope to make no one understand (unless he understands
already) with what joy of adventure I now crept through the
meadow toward the wood. It was an unknown, unexplored world I was
in, and I, the fortunate discoverer, had here to shift for
himself, make his home under the stars! Marquette on the wild
shores of the Mississippi, or Stanley in Africa, had no joy that
I did not know at that moment.
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