their pipea,
and commenced puffing away as though not] ling had happened to disturb their equanimity. Such perfect recklessness of life, such indifference to danger, I had never seen displayed before; and though I abhorred some of their customs, I could not but admire their coolness and valor. Their sense of hearing I soon discovered was far more acute than mine; for when the old trapper spoke of the whistle of his comrades, I could not, for the life of me, detect a distant sound proceeding from human lips. But that he was right, was soon evident; for in less than five minutes after. Fiery Ned and Rash Will made their appearance, and quietly stealing up to the aircle, threw themselves upon the ground without a remark. At the belt of each hun 1 -' 1 a fresh scalp, showing that two more
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of the enemy had been their victims.
For some time the two smoked away in silence, and then suggesting to the others the propriety of joining them, all four were soon in full blast. After a little, they began to -talk over their exploits; and amusing themselves in this way for an hour or more, one after another straight-
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ened himself out on the earth, an example which Teddy soon imitated, and in h've minutes all were lost in sleep.
As for Huntly and myself, slumber had fled our eyelids; and stirring the fire, we
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seated ourselves at a little distance and talked till daylight I narrating my singu lar dream, and both commercing upon it. All night long we heard the howling of the ravenous wolves, as they tore the flesh from the bones of our dead foes, and oc casionally caught a gleam of their fiery eye- balls, when they ventured nearer than asxial to our camp.
CHAPTER X.
JOURNEY RESUMED UNPLEASANT FEELINGS
UAMf 1 RESTLESSNESS A HALF FORM ED HESOLTTION THE LONELY WATCH
TERRIFIC THUNDERSTORM PAINFUL SE PARATION JOYFUL MEETING LOSS OF
ANIMALS SECOND CAMP.
AT an early hour in the morning we re sumed our journey. As we moved along, I be.l'cld the bones of two of oxir late foes,
basking white and ghastly in the sunlight, their clean-licked, shiny skulls, hollow sockets, and "Tinning teeth and iaws, fair-
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ly making my flesh to creep And the more so, perhaps, as I took into considera tion that only a few hours before, these same bones belonged to animated human beings; and that a mere turn of the whee* of fate might have placed me in their po sition, they in mine. Death is a solemn thing to contemplate at any time, and I was now in a mood to feel its terrors in more than their wonted force. My dream, although I tried to dispel it as only a dream, still made a deep impression upon my i mind; and this, together with what oc curred afterward, and the remembrance of the conversation I had held with my friend the morning previous, touching Lil ian, all tended to depress my spirits and make me melancholy.
At length, to rouse me from my sinking stupor, I turned my eyes upon Huntly; but perceiving that he too was deep in thought, I did not disturb his revery; while my own mind, settling back ihto itself, if I may be permitted the expression, wandered far away to the past, recalled a thousand old scenes, and then leaped forward to the fu ture, and became perplexed in conjectures regarding my final fate.
About noon we reached the banks of the Blue river, and, as on the preceding day, halted a few minutes to rest and refresh ourselves and animals. Here I noticed trees of oak, ash, walnut and hickory, with occasionally one of cottonwood and willow. The bottoms of this stream are often wide and fertile, on which the wild pea vine grows in abundance. The pea itself is somewhat smaller than that grown in the settlements, and can be used; as vegetable, its flavor being agreeable.
As our meat was now running slx*'^ Daring Tom observed that he would ' .nake somethin come ;" and setting forth with his rifle, soon returned heavily laden with wild turkeys. Hastily dressing, we threw them into our possible sacks, and again set for ward.
Traveling some fifteen miles through woodland and over prairie, we encamped at last in a beautiful little grove of ash and hickory, on the margin of a creek that flow ed into the Blue. The day h
