could not express my thankfulness."

"Where is it you belong?"

The girl gave the name of a settlement nearly a hundred miles distant.
Lewis bent his head a moment, as if deliberating something, and then
said:

"We've got a job on our hands that _must be done_ this very night, and
it is going to be such a lively one that it won't do to have you in the
vicinity. Consequently, although there isn't one of us but what would
risk his life to take you back to your friends, it can't be done _just
now_."

"You will not leave me?" plead the girl.

"Leave you? that's something the _Riflemen_, I make bold to say, never
did yet. No; of course we'll not _leave_ you. I'll tell you the plan.
About five miles off from the river, lives old Caleb Smith and his two
big sons, all as clever and kind as so many babies. We've got to be
back at our rendezvous to-night, where the other member of our company
is to meet us; and on our way there, we'll leave you at Old Smith's and
return for you in a few days. Won't that be the best we can do, Tom?"

"S'pose so."

The girl herself expressed great satisfaction at this conclusion; and,
as it was getting well along in the day, the Riflemen set out with
their charge. In due time they reached "Old Smith's house," who was
well known to them, and who received them with the most hearty
cordiality. He gladly took charge of the rescued girl, promising that
she should be guarded as much as if his own child. Just as the shadows
of evening were closing over the wood, the Riflemen took their
departure.

Three days later they returned to fulfill their promise to the girl,
when old Smith told them that, fearing some unexpected occurrence had
detained them, he had sent his two sons to conduct her to her home.

CHAPTER II.

THE SETTLERS.

We will rear new trees under homes that glow
As if gems were the frontage of every bough;
O'er our white walls we will train the vine,
And sit in its shadow at day's decline,
And watch our herds as they range at will
Through the green savannas, all bright and still.

MRS. HEMANS.

The incident narrated in the preceding chapter occurred one autumn,
many years ago. In the spring succeeding this autumn, a company of
settlers, with their loaded teams, and unwieldy baggage, were making
their slow way through the labyrinths of an Ohio forest to a sparse
settlement buried many miles further