t
it could have the range of a few rods, and fastening it left it to feed
on the wild grass and herbage around.

"Look here, uncle," said Sidney, as the chief walked away, "I wish I
was dead or well, I don't particularly care which."

"Why, boy, what is in the wind now? Why the rest of us are trying to
make out something good of a bad business, while you are fretting and
fuming like a caged lion. Be easy, boy, and if you cannot be easy, do
as we do, and be as easy as you can."

"It is well enough to say be easy, crippled, helpless, and obliged to
eat of the things the rest of you bring in; to sit here all day long
and be pitied, while that black rascal----"

"Hold! hold!--not another word like that," said the trapper, sternly.
"We are too much indebted to as noble a heart as ever beat, for a
return like this. What matters it, then, that his ways and complexion
are not like ours? His father was my father's friend, as well as my
own; and him I have known from earliest boyhood, and to this hour have
never known him guilty of a mean or dishonest act."

"What greater, more dastardly act of meanness could he perpetrate, than
stealing away the heart of that young girl, or are you so blind you
cannot see through his manoeuvring?"

"Sidney, you are not yourself to-night," said the trapper, "I am
convinced of that, and I do wrong to chide you: sickness and suffering,
toil and privation have unnerved you. When you are well, you will see
things clearer than you do now. Come, I must take you in, the night dew
is falling fast and cold around us. I see and know all that is going
on, and understand the chief much better than you do. Trust in my
management of the affair, and you will have no cause to complain at
last, however appearances at times may be against you."

The chief was now as contented and happy as if he had never known other
scenes than those that lay around him. The lodge, as he called their
abode, was filled with fruit, venison, skins and furs; the antelope
accepted his offering, and a half-tamed, high mettled colt was at his
command, on which, sometimes for a whole day, he went dashing madly
through the forest, a piece of hide around the colt's neck his only
accoutrements. Then he was in his element and free, with the fresh
mountain air fanning his dusky brow, infusing into his stalwart frame
new life and vigor.

Snow now began to fall, and the fierce northern winds swept through the
forests, creaking the leaf