that."

"No," said Tim, taking his pitch from his cousin.

"Let's have a good long rest, and then see what to-morrow brings; eh!
Man?"

Norman smiled and nodded, joining in the preparations for their evening
meal, and that night they all lay down as if to sleep, nothing being
heard but Shanter's deep breathing in the great solitude beneath the
glittering stars, till a deep sigh escaped from Norman's breast; and
rising from his blanket couch, he stole softly out to go and kneel down
beneath the great, violet, gold-spangled arch of heaven to pray for
help, and that there might not come that terrible sorrow in his home--
the tale to be told to future generations of how three happy, contented
lads went forth into the great wilderness and left their bones there
beneath some tree, or by some water-hole, bleaching in the sun.

He was picturing it all in that solemn silence; the very scene rose
before him, but it was swept away directly, and he was gazing in the
agony-drawn face of his mother, when he heard a faint sob, and turned as
Rifle dropped upon his knees by his side, laid his clasped hands upon
his brother's shoulder, and bent down his head.

But poor orphan Tim, who looked upon his cousins more as brothers than
aught else, had been as wakeful as they. It had been a mutual
deception; each had pretended that he was asleep, so as not to let the
others know how he suffered, and many seconds had not elapsed before he
too was kneeling by Norman's side.

And there they knelt for a long space, before Norman began repeating
aloud the old, old prayer, followed by the others, till he came to the
words, "And deliver us from--"

There he broke down, and the prayer was finished in a husky voice by Tim
alone.

A few minutes after they were lying once more in the shelter of the
sheet of canvas, and the next thing that happened was their starting up
into wakefulness with the sky one glow of gold and orange, and the black
face of Tam o' Shanter peering in at them with a grin upon his
countenance, as he cried:

"Now, Marmi boys, piggi go jump up. Mine baal sore now. Go along fine
way back."

For a marvellous change seemed to have come over the black. He had been
sleeping heavily for sixteen hours, and the breakfast he ate was
something like that to which they had been accustomed, in spite of the
fact that the flour was getting excessively low.

But it was as if a black cloud had rolled away from them during the
night,