proach closer by myself, I returned to tell my uncles
what I had seen. Uncle Mark and Quambo accompanied me back, and as we
got nearer the wolves looked up and snarled at us, and continued their
occupation; but what was our horror, on advancing a little further, to
discover that they were feeding on the dead bodies of a number of
persons stretched on the ground! A dreadful fear seized us. Could they
be those of our late companions? I shuddered, and burst into tears.

Yes! there could be no doubt about it, I thought. There lay those we
had lately parted from in health and strength, cruelly murdered, and now
the prey of the savage wolves. Our friends the Claxtons!--Dora! honest
Reuben! and their parents!

Then the fearful thought that such might ere long be our fate came over
me.

"Can none have escaped?" I exclaimed.

Uncle Mark advanced a few paces nearer the wolves, with his gun, ready
to fire should they attack him. He was looking at a man whom the wolves
had not yet torn to pieces. Apparently he was only just dead, and had
probably defended himself to the last, keeping his assailants at bay.

"That man did not belong to our party," I heard Uncle Mark cry out.
"These people must have formed part of another emigrant-train."

Quambo and I ran up to him. We then shouted together, and some of the
wolves nearest to us, startled by our approach, left their prey, when we
were convinced, by the dresses of the corpses, that Uncle Mark's surmise
was correct. This discovery somewhat relieved our minds. Our friends
might have escaped; but at the same time it was too evident that hostile
Indians were scouring that part of the country, and that we ourselves
might ere long be attacked, and share the fate of the unhappy persons we
saw before us.

We now slowly retreated, shouting as we did so to keep the wolves at
bay, and turning every few paces to face them; for had they seen us fly,
they might have been induced to follow. They were now, however, happily
for us, too much engaged in their dreadful feast to take further notice
of us.

Having told Uncle Stephen what we had seen, we turned the heads of the
oxen away from the spot, directing our course to the right, where the
ground appeared to be more even than any we had yet gone over. We
agreed not to let Aunt Hannah and Lily know of the dreadful scene we had
witnessed; but it was important to get as far as possible from the spot,
and we determined, if the oxen