rning till night; there is
no time to spare for amusement of any sort. Uncle Jeff would not
approve of our `idling our time,' as he would call it, in that sort of
way."

The lieutenant seemed inclined to linger at the waterfall, so that I had
to hurry him away, as I wanted to be back to attend to my duties. I was
anxious, also, to hear what account Bartle Won would bring in.

But the day passed away, and Bartle did not appear. Uncle Jeff's
confidence that he could have come to no harm was not, however, shaken.

"It may be that he has discovered the enemy, and is watching their
movements; or perhaps he has been tempted to go on and on until he has
found out that there is no enemy to be met with, or that they have taken
the alarm and beat a retreat," he observed.

Still the lieutenant was unwilling to leave us, although Uncle Jeff did
not press him to stay.

"It will never do for me to hurry off with my men, and leave a party of
whites in a solitary farm to be slaughtered by those Redskin savages,"
he said.

At all events, he stayed on until the day was so far spent that it would
not have been worth while to have started.

Clarice found a little leisure to sit down at the table with her
needle-work, very much to the satisfaction of the lieutenant, who did
his best to make himself agreeable.

I was away down the valley driving the cattle into their pen, when I
caught sight of Bartle coming along at his usual swinging pace towards
the farm.

"Well, what news?" I asked, as I came up to him.

"Our friend Winnemak was not romancing," he answered. "There were fully
as many warriors on the war-path as he stated; but, for some reason or
other, they turned about and are going south. I came upon their trail
after they had broken up their last camp, and I had no difficulty in
getting close enough to them to make out their numbers, and the tribes
they belong to. The appearance of their camp, however, told me clearly
that they are a very large body. We have to thank the chief for his
warning; at the same time, we need not trouble ourselves any more on the
subject."

"Have they done any harm on their march?" I asked.

"As to that, I am afraid that some settlers to the south have suffered;
for I saw, at night, the glare of several fires, with which the rascals
must have had something to do. I only hope that the poor white men had
time to escape with their lives. If I had not been in a hurry to get
back, I woul