a lonely tree, that now
stood scorched and leafless in the midst of the smoldering plain,
several miles from the safe retreat that had been gained by his
friends.

The horse on which he rode that day, though fleet and active, was
young, and uninured to long continued and violent exertion; and, at
length, its foot getting entangled in some creeping plant that had
grown across the pathway, it had fallen violently to the ground, and
thrown its young rider among the prairie-grass, where he lay, stunned,
and unable to rise, until all his companions had passed by. Then he
regained the path, and attempted to raise the exhausted creature from
the earth: but all in vain. Its trembling limbs were unable to support
it; and Lincoya saw that he could no longer look to his favorite steed
for the safety of his own life, and must abandon it to perish in the
flames.

But the boy was an Indian, and accustomed to Indian difficulties and
Indian expedients. He glanced rapidly around for some means of
preservation; and, seeing a tree of some magnitude, and at no great
distance, he resolved to try to reach it ere the coming fire had seized
on the surrounding herbage, and seek for a refuge in its summit. With
much difficulty, he forced his way through the tall rank grass that
waved above his head, and the wild vines that were entangled with it in
every direction; and he reached the foot of the tree just as the flames
were beginning to scorch its outmost branches. He sprang upward; and,
climbing with the agility of a squirrel, he was soon in the highest
fork of the tree, and enabled to look down in security on the
devastating fire beneath him. All around was one wide sea of ruddy
flames, that shot up in forked and waving tongues high amid the heavy
clouds of smoke. Happily for Lincoya, the herbage beneath his tree of
refuge grew thin and scanty, and did not afford much food for the
devouring elements; otherwise it must have consumed his retreat, and
suffocated him even in its topmost boughs. As it was, the lower
branches only were destroyed, and the boy was able to endure the heat
and smoke until the roaring flames had passed beneath him, and he
watched them driving onward in the wake of his flying friends.

To follow his companions that night was hopeless, for how could he
traverse that red-hot plain? He, therefore, settled himself firmly
among the sheltering branches, to one of which he bound himself with
his belt of deer skin, and prepa