at, so their
appetites was stronger than was comfortable. I do believe they'd have
starved if I hadn't killed a buck for them."

During this conversation Paddy Flinders had been listening attentively
and in silence. He now sidled up to Tom Brixton, who, although
bestriding Tolly's pony, seemed ill able to travel.

"D'ye hear what the trapper says, Muster Brixton?"

"Yes, Paddy, what then?"

"Och! I only thought to cheer you up a bit by p'intin' out that he says
there's goold hereabouts."

"I'm glad for your sake and Fred's," returned Tom, with a faint smile,
"but it matters little to me; I feel that my days are numbered."

"Ah then, sor, don't spake like that," returned Flinders, with a
woebegone expression on his countenance. "Sure, it's in the dumps ye
are, an' no occasion for that same. Isn't Miss--"

The Irishman paused. He had it in his heart to say, "Isn't Miss Betty
smilin' on ye like one o'clock?" but, never yet having ventured even a
hint on that subject to Tom, an innate feeling of delicacy restrained
him. As the chief who led the party gave the signal to move on at that
moment it was unnecessary for him to finish the sentence.

The Indian village, which was merely a cluster of tents made of
deerskins stretched on poles, was now plainly visible from the
commanding ridge along which the party travelled. It occupied a piece
of green level land on the margin of the lake before referred to, and,
with its background of crag and woodland and its distance of jagged
purple hills, formed as lovely a prospect as the eye of man could dwell
upon.

The distance of the party from it rendered every sound that floated
towards them soft and musical. Even the barking of the dogs and the
shouting of the little Redskins at play came up to them in a mellow,
almost peaceful, tone. To the right of the village lay a swamp, from
out of which arose the sweet and plaintive cries of innumerable gulls,
plovers, and other wild-fowl, mingled with the trumpeting of geese and
the quacking of ducks, many of which were flying to and fro over the
glassy lake, while others were indulging in aquatic gambols among the
reeds and sedges.

After they had descended the hill-side by a zigzag path, and reached the
plain below, they obtained a nearer view of the eminently joyful scene,
the sound of the wild-fowl became more shrill, and the laughter of the
children more boisterous. A number of the latter who had observed the
approac