hot coffee which he had brought me, he
told me how he and one of his companions, after the canoe had been
upset, had clung on under her with their heads just above water, as she
floated down the river, till at length, by great exertions, they had
managed to direct her with their feet towards the shore. Believing that
Pat was lost, they did not look for him, but, as soon as they had
recovered, pushed on for Fort Ross, which they reached almost dead with
hunger, and were, of course, the first to announce the tidings of the
destruction of Fort Black.

Sandy had already found Pat, who had given him an account of our
adventures.

I told him how delighted I was, too, to find that he had escaped, as I
had given him up for lost. He told me, almost with tears in his eyes,
how he had mourned for us, cut off, as he fancied, in our prime.

"But God is vera merciful," he said, "and He has preserved you, I hope,
to be good and useful men."

"He has indeed taught us to trust Him, for His arm alone could have
saved us from the many dangers to which we were exposed," I answered.

We had not much time, however, for conversation, and Sandy, who had
undertaken to look after me, helped me into a sledge, which had been
prepared, he said, for my use.

Honest Bouncer, who had slept at the door of the tent, got in after me,
seeming to consider that the place at my feet was his rightful position.
There was just time before starting to exchange greetings with the rest
of the party, who were already in their carioles.

I found that during the night four fresh carioles had been formed, and
by taking a dog from one team and one or more from others, a sufficient
number of animals had been procured to drag us. Sandy, who drove my
team, gave me an account of the various events which had occurred, and
of the grief our supposed loss had caused our friends. "The young
ladies," he said, "he feared would never again have recovered their
spirits, and it was only when some hope was expressed that we might have
escaped that they at all brightened up."

Letty afterwards told me, indeed, that she had never altogether
abandoned hope. "I could not have borne it had I done so," she added.

After the fatiguing way in which we had been accustomed to travel, it
was delightful to be drawn along at a rapid rate over the hard snow,
well wrapped up in buffalo-robes; with a piece of crape drawn over the
face to shelter it from the icy blast when the wind ble