you may be able to recognise."

"That I certainly should," said old Samson, "for I had but a few days
before parted from my daughter to proceed eastward. On hearing of the
massacre, I returned; but finding the whole village a mass of blackened
ashes, and being unable to gain any tidings of the beings I loved best
on earth, I had no doubt left on my mind that they had all perished.
Having thus no one to care for, I took to the life I have since led--
which I had before only occasionally followed, after the death of my
wife and the marriage of my daughter, for the sake of the sport it
afforded me."

From this time forward old Samson constantly spoke about Lily; and,
persuaded by his own hopes that she was his grand-daughter, he seemed to
be fully convinced that such was the case. His anxiety to see her, and
to examine the clothes and ornaments which Aunt Hannah had preserved,
increased every day; but how were we to find Lily and Aunt Hannah? Had
our friends turned back; or had they pushed forward, fighting their way
successfully towards the fertile region to which they were bound?
Neither he nor I could bring ourselves to contemplate what might
otherwise have happened--had they been overwhelmed by the hordes of
savages, and met the fearful fate which had overtaken the smaller band
whose remains we had discovered?

The old trapper went out every day to ascertain if the Indians had moved
away from the plain below us--should he find the country open, he
intended, he said, to go in search of Sandy, and those he might have
rescued--but he as often returned with the information that the Indians
still occupied the country. I, of course, greatly hampered him, for he
would not leave me in the cavern for long together. Had he been by
himself, he could easily have started at night and made his escape.

Gradually my ankle regained strength, and Samson now made me get up and
walk about to try it. Unwilling longer to detain him, I at last
declared that it was quite well, making light of the pain I still felt
when I walked, and begged to accompany him the next time he went out.
He consented. "But you must not go without a weapon; and you can use it
well, I know," he observed, as he drew a rifle from under his bunk. He
produced also a powder-horn, which I slung over my shoulder, and a bag
of bullets. The great drawback to our place of concealment was, that
although well hidden from the sight of those in the plain, we had to g