hogs in their pens. They come upon him
there; he starts from his sleep and dashes away, while they follow, and
track him by the blood of his feet in the snow. Oh, how terrible it is!
I must not think of it; I will go mad."

She turns to the door and listens. She draws back the ragged curtains
from the window and tries to look out into the storm. She can hear and
see nothing, and she walks back again to the fire. "I must set them
their supper." As she says this, she goes to a little cupboard and takes
a piece of bread, puts it on a plate and sets it on the table. Then she
places two plates and two cups of water. "They will be here soon, and
they must have their suppers. Oh, that grocery!" She shudders as she
says this. "And Johnny will bring me news of him--of John Logan. What's
that?"

She springs to the door, lifts the latch, and Stumps steals in, brushing
the snow from his neck and shoulders. He has a club in his hand, and
looks back and about him as he shuts the door.

"Oh, sister, its awful! I tell you its too awful!"

"Brother--brother! What has happened? What is awful? What is it,
Johnny? And he, John Logan?"

"He's been there!" The boy shivers and points in a half-frightened
manner toward the little hill. "Yes, he has; he's been up on the hill by
his mother's grave; and he's been to 'Squire Field's house--yes, he has;
and he couldn't get in, for they had a big dog tied to the gate, and now
they have got another dog tied to the gate. Yes, and they tracked him
all around by the blood in the snow!"

"Oh brother! don't, don't!"

"Don't be afraid, sister; he has gone away now. Oh, if he would only go
away and stay away--far away, and they couldn't catch him, I'd be just
as glad as I could be! Yes, I would; so help me, I would."

"And he has been up there, and in this storm!"

She speaks this to herself, as she goes to the window and attempts to
look out.

"Poor, poor John Logan!" sighs the boy. "I wish his mother was alive; I
do, so help me. She was a good woman, she was; she didn't sick Bose on
me, she didn't."

As the boy says this he stands his club in the corner, and looks with
his sister for a moment sadly into the fire, and then suddenly says:

"I'm hungry. Sister, ain't you got something to eat. Forty-nine, he's
down to the grocery, and Phin Emens he's down to the grocery, too, and
he swears awfully about John Logan, and he says it's the Injun that's in
him that makes him so bad. Do you think it