. Lewis was one of these stuck-up, know-it-all johnnies, not
long breeched. But Caswell was an old Crimea veteran; his face had been
spiled by a powder explosion; but he certainly was a sporter! Me and him
got along fine. My! My! what a randy old feller he was! The men used to
sit around him with their mouths open waitin' to laugh. Grimy Caswell
they called him, along of his speckled face--great big man!

"We travelled for three days and three nights without stoppin'; and
would you believe it, that damn fool Lewis--'scuse me, Miss--made us
light a lantern at night! A mark for all the reds in the country! I was
steerin' the first boat; and signallin' the channel to Dave Sinclair in
the boat behind, with my hand; this way and so. But the second day Dave
ran her aground. Young Lewis wouldn't allow that we knew how to lift a
boat off a shoal up North. I let him break all the ropes tryin' to drag
her off; then I showed him. Meanwhile, all this time, Grimy Caswell was
dressin' himself up like a redskin in my boat; and smearin' his face
with red earth. When it got dusk-like, he hid in the bushes; and by and
by Lewis came along the shore. All of a sudden, Grimy in his war-paint
popped out in front of him, let out a hell of a screech, and sent a shot
over his head. Say, that young man near died right there. He turned the
colour of a lead bullet; and made some quick tracks to the rear boat.
Grimy sneaked back to ours and washed and dressed; and all night long he
plagued Lewis to light the lantern; but he wouldn't; and the men near
died holdin' theirselves in. Oh! Grimy Caswell was a humorous feller,
he was!

"We landed at Fort Pitt on the fourth day; and at the same time the
steamboats come up from Battle Run with the whole army. They landed 'em
all; and say, they had a brass band; and General Middleton rode a white
horse. Never see such a grand sight in all my born days; they must have
been all of seven hundred and fifty men!"

At the foot of another long hill Natalie expressed a wish to walk up;
and Garth helped her down. They set off briskly, ahead of the horses;
and for the first time found themselves free to talk to each other.

"How good you have been to me!" she murmured.

"Don't think of thanking me," said Garth, almost roughly.

"If I had known how literally you would have to take care of me, I would
not have been so quick to ask you."

"It was nothing, really."

"Nothing, you mean to what is before us?" she aske