The drunken
sons were secured, and the woman, in spite of her defense and
vociferations, shared the same fate. The Indian fairly danced with joy,
and gave us to understand that as he could not sleep for pain, he would
watch over us. You may suppose we slept much less than we talked. The
two strangers gave me an account of their once having been themselves in
a somewhat similar situation.

Day came, fair and rosy, and with it the punishment of our captives.
They were now quite sobered. Their feet were unbound, but their arms
were still securely tied. We marched them into the woods off the road,
and having used them as Regulators were wont to use such delinquents, we
set fire to the cabin, gave all the skins and implements to the young
Indian warrior, and proceeded, well pleased, towards the settlements.

During upward of twenty-five years, when my wanderings extended to all
parts of our country, this was the only time at which my life was in
danger from my fellow-creatures. Indeed, so little risk do travelers run
in the United States, that no one born there ever dreams of any to be
encountered on the road, and I can only account for this occurrence by
supposing that the inhabitants of the cabin were not Americans.

Will you believe, good-natured reader, that not many miles from the
place where this adventure happened, and where fifteen years ago, no
habitation belonging to civilized man was expected, and very few ever
seen, large roads are now laid out, cultivation has converted the woods
into fertile fields, taverns have been erected, and much of what we
Americans call comfort is to be met with! So fast does improvement
proceed in our abundant and free country.

BERTHOLD AUERBACH

(1812-1882)

The author of 'Black Forest Village Stories' and 'On the Heights' stands
out in honorable individuality among modern German novelists, even if
the latest fashions in fiction make his work already a little
antiquated. Auerbach's biography is one of industry rather than of
incident. His birth was humble. His life was long. He wrote voluminously
and was widely popular, to be half forgotten within a decade after his
death. He may perhaps be reckoned the founder of a contemporary German
school of _tendenz_ novel writers; a school now so much diminished that
Spielhagen--who, however, wears Auerbach's mantle with a difference--is
its only survivor.

Of Jewish parentage, his birthplace being Nordstetten, Wuertemberg
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