After going a quarter of a mile, he put on his boots, and, climbing a
wall of sods which bordered the road, struck across country. There were
no stars to guide him, and a slight mist had begun to fall. There was but
little wind, but this was sufficient to give a direction to the rain.
Walter noticed this, and at once struck out in a direction which kept the
rain falling upon the right side of his face; and he knew that, by so
continuing, he was going in a tolerably straight line. As near as he
could tell he walked for two hours, and then, utterly exhausted, lay down
on the lee side of a turf wall.
There was, as yet, no gleam of light in the sky, and in a very few
minutes he was again sound asleep. He woke up with a feeling of bitter
cold, and, on rising, found that his limbs were completely stiffened by
the wet. It was morning now, the wind had got up, and a driving rain shut
out the view on all sides. Walter stamped his feet and swung his arms for
some time to restore the circulation.
He had no idea in which direction he had been travelling, for he did not
know whether the road from which he had started ran north, south, east,
or west. He noticed that the wind had changed; for, whereas he had lain
down under the lee of the wall, it was now the weather side.
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