We looked round in perplexity. There was no house in sight; but
here was a barn, and the door was ajar. We went in. It was empty of
hay or cattle. The barn looked curiously familiar; but it was not
till we perceived the torn newspapers and the pieces of split oak
brace on the floor that the full truth dawned on us. It was the old
Plancher barn!

We had run five miles through the woods, only to reach the place
from which we had started.

John looked at me, and I looked at Willis. A sense of utter
bewilderment fell on us. John and I did not even think to revile
Willis. In fact, we were terrified. All hope of dinner, or of
reaching home at all that night, deserted us. The storm was
increasing; the late November day was at an end.

For a while we scarcely spoke. John Eastman, who was the youngest,
began to cry. The old barn creaked dismally as each gust of wind
racked it, and loose boards rattled and banged. No created place
can be more dreary than an old and empty barn.

After our exertions we soon felt very chilly. We should not have
dared build a fire in the barn, even if we had had matches. Willis
groped about in the old hay bay and gathered a few handfuls of
musty hay, which we spread on the barn floor, and then lay down as
snugly together as we could nestle, but nothing that we could do
sufficed to warm us, and we lay shivering for what seemed hours.

John and I finally fell asleep, and perhaps Willis did also,
although he always denied it. At last he waked us, shaking us