defective knowledge
and her weak superstition,--as some would call it,--than the proud
sceptic, ever croaking, like some hideous night-bird, as he turns his
bleared eyes away from the beams of the Sun of Righteousness, "No God,
no Bible, no Saviour, no Heaven of blessedness, no Immortality,"
wandering through life without hope and God in the world, and, at
death, taking a frightful "leap in the dark"!

CHAPTER XVI.

A BELEAGUERED CABIN.

It was a misty morning when Tom and his companion approached the fort.
The air was damp with vapor, and the American flag, with its glorious
stars and stripes, drooped heavily. The fortress was on the very
outskirts of civilization, on an elevated point of land, commanding an
extensive prospect on every side. Richly diversified prairies, rarely
pressed by the white man's foot, gave one an impressive sense of
vastness and magnificence. As the sun arose, and the curtain of fog
rolled off, Tom gazed on the landscape, spell-bound; for, accustomed
as he was to prairie scenery, he had never seen any view that equalled
this.

"Not an Injun could come nigh this ere fort," said the little man that
held the reins; "everybody has to be seen, no matter how fur off they
be, specially when the officers gits their telescopes to their eyes.
Why, I suppose they can see hundreds o' miles with one of them big
glasses; any rate, I heard tell about their seeing clean up to the
stars, an' a good piece beyend."

They had now approached a gate, before which paced an armed sentry, in
answer to whose challenge, the little man, who grew consequential as
he neared the citadel, said,--

"This ere youngster, Mr. Sojer, wants to see the commander of this ere
institution on very perticler business, which admits of no delay."

The man with the gun sent a message into the fort without a word in
reply, until the messenger returned, when he said, laconically,--

"Pass in."

Tom had never before seen a fortress, and surveyed with eager interest
the rows of heavy guns, and the cannon-balls in conical shaped piles,
and the long, four-storied brick buildings extending around the
spacious square, from the centre of which rose the flagstaff. Grimly
as frowned the guns and warlike munitions, the neatness and order that
reigned had a pleasing effect on Tom's mind. And within those
many-roomed buildings, standing amid the solitudes of the wilderness,
in the families of the officers gayety and mirth often held c