d to do
that thing just now. Sam, in front, isn't likely to get asleep, is he?"

"No danger of him. They say he never shuts both eyes at the same time."

"I'll answer for them on the sides of the road," added Harry. "If
there's a greasy Shawnee in a mile, Jake Laughlin will scent him. You
mind the time, Jim, when he went with us over into Kentucky, and he
saved us from running into that ambush?"

"'Tain't likely I'll ever forget it, being I got my arm bored with some
of their lead."

"Well, that affair satisfied me that Jake Laughlin understands as much
as it is worth while to understand about Injin deviltries, and that he
ain't likely to be blind when there's so much to practice eyesight on."

"I'd give our yoke of oxen this minute, if I could only set eyes on Lew
Dernor and his boys, the Riflemen of the Miami," said the parent.
"They've been long together, as I s'pose, and have been in more Injin
fights and scrimmages than any men living, and yet not one of them has
been grazed by a bullet. There's Tom O'Hara, whose legs are so short
that he's about as tall when he sits down as he is when he stands up,
and yet, I'll be hanged if he isn't the luckiest one of the lot.
They're a wonderful set of boys, are those Riflemen."

"Father," said son Jim, with a meaning smile, "you remember the night
that Lew brought Edith to our house?"

"Of course I do."

"Didn't it strike you that he acted queerly then?"

"What do you mean? I don't understand you. I noticed nothing."

"I did. I saw how he watched Edith, and I made up my mind that he was
in _love with her_! Since then I've found out it _was_ so!"

"Why, Jim, I never dreamed of such a thing. He hasn't been to our house
since to see her."

"Just because he _is_ in love! I've met him in the woods a dozen times
since, and by the way in which he questioned me, I'd been a downright
fool if I hadn't understood him."

This avowal seemed to trouble the father, as he bent his head; and, for
a while, nothing further was said. But Jim, who had little reverence
for sentiment or romance, added, in a meaning voice:

"That isn't all, father."

"What else have you to tell?"

"That Edith loves him!"

"Thunder! I don't believe it."

"Well, I can't say _positively_ that she does; but I know she _likes_
him, and if Lew Dernor has a mind he can get her. You don't appear to
like it, father."

"I don't care much, but the gal seems so like my own da'ter, being I
never had any,