Jerome and his friends, Harris and George, are on a holiday in Germany. They have decided to walk and cycle their way through the Black Forest area. In the text you are about to read, they have planned to walk to the village of Todtmoos, which they have been told is a short but beautiful trek. Read on to to find out what happens.
We had our breakfast at four thirty in the morning and started at five. Our road lay over a mountain. From what we had heard in the village, it was one of the roads you cannot possibly miss. A few miles later, the road divided into three. An old sign-post indicated that the road to left led to a place that we had never heard of. Its other arm had disappeared. The road to the right, we all agreed, clearly led back again to the village.
"The old at the inn told us clearly to keep straight on round the hill," Harris reminded us.
"Which hill?" George asked. We were surrounded by many-some of them big, some of them little.
"He told us", said Harris, ignoring George, " that we would come to a wood."
As a matter of fact, a thick wood covered every hill, which George pointed out very helpfully.
"And he said, muttered Harris, " that we would reach the hill top in about an hour and a half."
We looked around us in silence.
"Well, what shall we do?" said Harris.
Now, I happen to have a gift for finding my way in strange places. It is not my fault that things- mountains, rivers and other such obstacles- occasionally get 8n my way. I led them by middle road but after three miles up and down hill, it ended suddenly in a wasps' nest.
"Well," said Harris. "I suppose you are satisfied with what you have done?"
"I am quite satisfied," replied bitterly, "I would continue to lead your further but no one can work without encouragement. Go your own way-I am done with you both!"
"Well in that case," said Harris. "I would like to use science, which is exact. Now, where's the sun?"
"Don't you think," said George, "that if we went back to the village and hired a boy to guide us, it would save time?"
"It would be wasting time," said Harris. "You leave to this to me". He took out his watch and began turning round and round.
"It's as simple as ABC," he continued. "You point the short hand at the sun, then you divide the part between the short hand and the twelve, and thus you get the north."
He looked up and down for a while. "Now I've got it," he said. "That's the north, where that wasps' nest is. Now give me the map."
We handed it to him and he looked at it carefully.
"Todtmoos is towards the south from here," he said finally
"What do you mean, from here?" asked George.
"From here- where we are right at this moment", said Harris.
"But where are we?" said George.
"It doesn't matter where we are," Harris said. "We shall be in Todtmoos before ten, don't you worry!"
We walked for half an hour before coming to an opening. From here, we saw below us, the village we had left morning. It had a pretty church with an outside staircase-an unusual feature that we all remembered.
The sight of it made me sad. We had been walking for three and a half hours and we're now almost back to where we started. But Harris was delighted.
"Now, at last," said Harris, "we know where we are."
"I thought you said it didn't matter," said George.
"It does not," replied Harris, " but it is just as well to be certain. "Now, it looks like we are going west."
"We are going east," said George.
"You were confusing me!" said Harris.
" I Don't mind it I do," said George. "I would rather do that than go wrong. I tell you, we are going east."
"What nonsense!" said Harris. "There's the sun."
"I can see the sun," answered George. "It may be where it should be, according to you and science, or it may not. All I know is that when we were down in the village, that the hill was north of us."
"You're quite right," said Harris. "I forgot for the moment that we had turned round."
So we turned around again and walked in the other direction. At the end of forty minutes of climbing, we again came up to an opening. Again, the village lay just below us.
"This is very strange," said Harris. "The village should be on the other side!"
"I think," said George looking cross, " that we should just go down there and get some rest."
" But it can't be the same village!" said Harris.
"There's no mistaking that church," said George. "Anyhow, which way do we go now?"
" I don't know," said Harris, "and I don't care. I have done my best- you have done nothing but grumble."
"I may have grumbled," said George" but look at the thing from my point of view. One of you leads me to a wasps' nest in the middle of a wood. The other one leads me up and down hill for hours, doesn't know which way is north, and forgets that he's turned round. Now, I can see a man down there. I am going to offer him the worth of the hay he is cutting to lead me straight to Todtmoos. If you two fellows like to follow, you can."
George's plan was not very clever, but at the moment it appealed to us. Fortunately, we had now reached a point that was a very short distance away from the spot where we had originally gone wrong. So with the help of the gentleman George had seen, we finally found the road. We did reach Todtmoos that day but fours hours later than the time we had calculated to reach to the place.
-Richard_Flaming543
