the confinement of the prison-like
block-house to return to their larger tents and shelters, a good deal of
the misery and discomfort was forgotten.

For as soon as it was day a couple of scouting parties issued from the
gate and advanced cautiously through the plantations, tracing the course
of the Indians easily enough, and following it up to the forest.

The advance was made with the greatest precaution, the men stealing from
garden to plantation, and from fence to fence, expecting to receive
arrows at any moment, and with their fire-locks ready to reply to the
first inimical shot.

But no arrow sped toward them as they scouted on past the ruined houses;
and the men's countenances grew sadder as they passed the smouldering
heaps of ashes, and grasped their pieces more firmly, longing for an
opportunity to punish the wretches who were destroying our homes.

My father took command of one of these scouting parties, and after a
little persuasion he gave me his consent that we two boys should
accompany it. He refused at first, but on my pointing out how keen
Pomp's sight and sense of hearing were, he reluctantly said yes, and we
went slowly on.

We stopped at each burned home we passed, to see how complete the
destruction was; and, though I said nothing to my father, I could not
help comparing the piles of newly-charred wood, and ashes to what I had
seen at our own clearing.

It was exciting work as we went on, with our eyes fixed upon every spot
likely to afford shelter to an Indian. The men spread out, and worked
round clump of trees or patch of cane. But no Indian was seen, and at
last we approached the forest.

Here Pomp was invaluable. He seemed to have no sense of fear, in spite
of the experiences he had gone through; and again and again he had to be
checked and kept from rushing among the trees, where the enemies might
have been lying waiting in force.

He was not long in pointing out the place where the Indians had left the
shelter of the forest, and soon after he found out another spot where it
was quite as plain that they had returned--evidently working in a
regularly organised way; and at first sight, as we gazed down at the
footprints, one might have thought that only one man had passed, but my
father explained to me how one seemed to have stepped in another's
track, which had grown deeper and broader, till it was plainly marked
wherever the soil was soft.

As soon as Pomp had pointed this out,