he dry inside
ready for Sam to sleep on when he comes back? It'll surprise him and
he'll be glad too. He never cared for himself much, but he'll be glad to
see that we care for him."

The plan pleased little Judie wonderfully well. She was always delighted
to do anything for Sam, and now that she was uneasy about him, and kept
thinking of him as dead or dying or sick somewhere, and could hardly
keep her tears back, nothing could have pleased her so well as to work
for his comfort. Tom and Joe went out after dark, and brought in a large
lot of moss, and the next morning all went to work, Judie made very
little progress with her scraping, but she kept steadily at it, and it
served its purpose in making her less miserable than before. The days
passed more rapidly to Tom and Joe, too, and the whole party grew more
cheerful under the influence of work. It was now ten days, however,
since Sam had gone away, and his non-appearance was really alarming.
When work stopped for the night, the thought of Sam was uppermost in the
minds of all three, and for the first time they talked freely of the
matter.

Tom was disposed to cheer himself by cheering the others, and so he
explained:

"It's about forty-five miles to where Fort Mims stood, so Sam told me,
and he said he might go nearly that far, if he didn't see Indians. If he
went only thirty-five miles it would take him four or five nights; say
five nights, and five more to come back would make ten. But may be his
foot got sore, or Indians got in the way, and so it has taken him longer
than he thought. I don't think we ought to be uneasy even if he should
stay two weeks in all."

That was all very well as a theory, and true enough too, but Tom was
uneasy, nevertheless, and so were Joe and Judie. The worst of it was
that none of them could hide the fact. The eleventh day came, and with
it came an excitement. Tom was the first to wake, and without waiting
for the others, he proceeded to make his breakfast off an ear of raw
corn, which was almost hard enough to grind, and altogether too hard to
be eaten as green corn at any well-regulated table. Tom ate it, however,
having nothing better, and when Judie waked he offered her a softer ear,
which he had carefully selected and laid aside. Judie tried but couldn't
eat it. She was faint and almost sick, and found it impossible to
swallow the raw corn.

"Poor little sister," said Tom. "If I had any fire I'd roast a potato
for you to-da