"Are you going to leave the sled here?" said Josey. "Yes," said Jonas, "we can come and get it after the storm is over." The oxen drew the sleigh along very easily. The snow was quite deep for a little distance, and then it became less so; but it was very dark, and it was difficult for Jonas to follow his track. The snow blew across it with great violence, and was fast filling it up. However, Jonas soon came to his first rafter, and this encouraged him. It was a good deal covered with snow, but the end was out, and the direction of it showed him which way to go, in order to find the next one. After he had passed this guide, the path was no more to be distinguished. He went on, however, as nearly as he could in the direction indicated by the rafter; and, after going the proper distance, he began to look out before him for the second. He began to be a little anxious lest he had missed it, when he observed something dark in the snow, at a little distance on the right. He went to it, and found that it was the rafter. Thus he was upon his track again; but his having so narrowly escaped missing it, made him afraid that he should not be able to follow the train very far. His fears proved well grounded. All his efforts to discover the third rafter were entirely unavailing. "'Tis of no consequence," said Jonas; "we can't be far from the shore. I'll keep straight on, and we shall strike the land somewhere, not far from the house." But it is much easier to get bewildered in a storm than Jonas had supposed. The darkness, the obscurity produced by the falling snow, the perfect and unvarying level of the surface, in every direction the same, and the agitation of mind which even the most resolute must experience in such a situation, all conspired to make it difficult, in a case like this, to find the way. Jonas drove on in the direction which he thought would have led to the shore; but, after going amply far enough to reach it, no shore was to be seen. The fact was, that he had insensibly deviated just so far from his course, as to be going along parallel with the shore, instead of in the direction towards it. Jonas began to be somewhat concerned, and Josey was in a state of great anxiety and fear. He rose up in the sleigh, and attempted to look around; and his fear was suddenly changed into terror, at seeing a large black animal, like a bear, coming furiously up behind them, bounding over the snow. Josey screamed aloud. "What is the matter?" said the woman. "Why, Franco! Franco!" said Jonas, "how could you get here?"