did not meet my son's boat?"

"Gone, is Gabriel gone?" murmured Evangeline piteously; she could not
hide her disappointment, and shed bitter tears.

"Be of good cheer, my child," returned honest Basil, "it is only to-day
he went from here. He grew moody and restless ever thinking of thee,
till at length he could no longer endure this quiet existence. Therefore
I let him go among the Indians, hoping thus to divert his mind from his
troubles. Early to-morrow thou and I will set out after him, and I doubt
not but we shall overtake him and bring him back to his friends."

A sound of many voices was now heard, and the other travelers came up
joyously led by Michael the fiddler, who had lived with Basil since
their exile, having no other task than that of cheering his companions
by his merry music. Basil invited all the travelers to sup with them,
and greatly did they marvel at the former blacksmith's wealth and many
possessions. When they were seated at the table, Basil told his friends
of the beauty of the country and the fertility of the soil, and, when he
added that land might be had for the asking, they all resolved to settle
there and help to form the new Acadian colony.

On the morrow, according to his promise, Basil set out to overtake his
son, and Evangeline went with him. Day after day they journeyed onward
through a wild and desolate country, but could hear no tidings of the
traveler. At length they arrived at the inn of a little Spanish town,
where they heard that Gabriel had left that very place the previous day
and had set out with his horses and guides for the prairies.

Basil and Evangeline determined not to give up their search, and, hiring
some Indian guides, they followed in the direction which Gabriel had
taken. One evening as they were sitting by their camp-fire, there
entered an Indian woman whose face bore the marks of heavy grief. She
was returning from the far distant hunting-grounds, where her husband
had been cruelly murdered by a hostile tribe. Touched by her sad story,
the white people offered her food and a night's shelter, which she
gratefully accepted. After the evening meal was over, Evangeline and the
stranger sat apart, and the maiden, in her turn, related to the other
the story of her lost lover and her other misfortunes.

Early the next day the march was resumed, and as they journeyed along,
the Indian woman said: "On the western slope of these mountains dwells
the Black Robe, Chief