rth
itself--presented one uniform dry, burnt-up appearance.

Not a creature of any kind was seen to move over this great plain; not a
wing cleaved the air above; not a sound broke the stillness beneath. It
was a solitude the most complete I ever conceived,--grand and imposing!
How my heart sank within me as I sat and looked, thinking I was there
alone, without one creature near me, to linger out, perhaps, some few
days or hours of life, and die unseen, un-watched, uncared for! And to
this sad destiny had ambition brought me! Were it not for the craving
desire to become something above my station, to move in a sphere to
which neither my birth nor my abilities gave me any title, and I should
be now the humble peasant, living by my daily labor in my native
land, my thoughts travelling in the worn track those of my neighbors
journeyed, and I neither better nor worse off than they.

And for this wish--insensate, foolish as it was--the expiation is indeed
heavy. I hid my head within my hands, and tried to pray, but I could
not. The mind harassed by various conflicting thoughts is not in the
best mood for supplication. I felt like the criminal of whom I had once
read, that, when the confessor came to visit him the night before
his execution, seemed eager and attentive for a while, but at
last acknowledged that his thoughts were centred upon one only
theme,--escape! "To look steadfastly at the next world, you must
extinguish the light of this one;" and how difficult is that!--how
hard to close every chink and fissure through which hope may dart a
ray,--hope of life, hope of renewing the struggle in which we are so
often defeated, and where even the victory is without value!

"Be it so," sighed I, at last; "the game is up!" and I lay down at the
foot of a rock to die. My strength, long sustained by expectation, had
given way at last, and I felt that the hour of release could not be
distant. I drew my hand across my eyes,--I am ashamed to own there were
tears there--and just then, as if my vision had been cleared by the act,
I saw, or I thought I saw, in the plain beneath, the glittering sparkle
of flame. Was it the reflection of a star, of which thousands were now
studding the sky, in some pool of rain-water? No! it was real fire,
which now, from one red spark, burst forth into a great blaze, rolling
out volumes of black smoke which rose like a column into the air.

Were they Indians who made it, or trappers? or could it be t