Page 247 (1/1)

"Yes," I answered, and took h mad, Jeremy, for my faith was not like hers I have looked on Death too much of late, and yesterday all men believed that he had come to dwell in the forest and had swept clean his house before him But you escaped, you both escaped"-"God's hand was over us," he said reverently "This is the way of it She had been ill, you know, and of late she had taken no thought of food or sleep She was so weak, we had to go so slowly, and so winding was our path, who knew not the country, that the evening found us not far upon our way, if e had We caave us shelter for the night In the o forth to their alked with them When they caood-by, and went on alone We had not gone an hundred paces when, looking back,three Indians start from the dimness of the forest and set upon and slay the ave chase to ht up thy wife and ran for both our lives When I saw that they were light of foot and would overtakea sword that I had with me, went back to meet them halfway Ralph, I slew all three,--may the Lord have mercy on my soul! I knew not what to think of that attack, the peace with the Indians being so profound, and I began to fear for thy wife's safety She knew not the woods, and I ed to turn our steps back toward Jae that I did so It was about h the trees before us, and heard the sound of firing and of a great yelling I made her crouch within a thicket, while I h stu, painted,their weapons toward the town, human hair dabbled with blood at the belts ofof it all?"

"It ainst us and slew us by the hundred The toarned and is safe Go on"

"I crept back to erous neighborhood We found a growth of bushes and hid ourselves within it, and just in tireat band of picked warriors, tall and black and wondrously feathered, fresh to the fray, whatever the fray ht be They joined themselves to the ireat din withstory short, we crouched there in the bushes until late afternoon, not knoas theto venture forth to find out The woiven us a packet of bread andAnd then of a sudden the wood around us was filled with the heathen, band after band, co like serpents this way and that into the depths of the forest They saw us not in the thick bushes; ht and main At last the distance sed the aited, but with the sunset we stole from the bushes and down an aisle of the forest toward the river, rounded a little wood of cedar, and caes"--He paused to draw a great breath and to raise his brows after a fashion that he had