about ten o'clock
A woman once set out to go to the house of a neighbour who lived about a mile distant . Supposing herself on the right path she walked onward , till thinking the way rather long she stopped and gazed earnestly around her , and became terrified as she noticed that the trees and rocks , and every other surrounding object had a strange unfamiliar look ; and she knew at once that she had taken a wrong path . Becoming much alarmed , she endeavoured to retrace her steps , but after walking a long time would often return to the spot from which she set out . She left home about ten o'clock in the forenoon , and her friends , alarmed at her long stay , called together some of their neighbours and set out to look for her , knowing that she must have lost her way in the forest . They continued their search through the afternoon , sounding horns , hallooing , and calling her name , as they hurried through the tangled underbrush , and other obstructions , and at sunset they returned to procure torches with which to continue their search through the night ; her friends were almost beside themselves with terror , and all the stories they had heard or read of people being devoured by wild animals rushed across their minds . But just when they had collected nearly every settler in the vicinity , and were preparing their torches to continue the search , the woman arrived safely at home , with no further injury than being thoroughly frightened and very much fatigued . She stated that she had walked constantly , from the time when she became aware she was lost , and that she was so much bewildered that she at the first did not know their own clearing , till some familiar object attracted her attention .