y."

"No, no," I said; "they've all fought bravely."

"Ay, that they have, and are going to fight bravely to the very end.
Why, look at those poor niggers too. See how they've fought, brave
lads! No one would have thought they were slaves to see the way they've
gone at it, just as if this was their own place, and they'd never been
sold and bought. There, my lad, once more, don't you go thinking we're
all going to turn cowards, because we're not. Our officers have done
their duty by us, and we've tried to do our duty by them; and if it
comes to the worst, I say what's been proposed is only doing our duty
still; what say you?"

"Ay, ay," came in a chorus; and I could not say a word. I felt choked
as I looked round at the enclosure, all lit up by the glow, with black
shadows cast here and there by the various piles of cases and the tents,
and then I seemed to see beyond the great fence, and the black and
pale-faced men, right away through the forest to our own bright home,
close to the pleasant river, where all was sunshine, and glorious with
bird and flower and tree. It was impossible to believe that I was never
to see it all again, never to wander through the forest, never to ride
on the stream and pause to watch the brightly-plumaged birds and the
glittering insects or the gorgeously-scaled fish gliding through the
clear waters, down where I had so often seen them amongst the roots of
the overhanging trees.

It all came back like some bright dream--the creeper-covered house, my
father seated at his window, about which the flowers bloomed, as he sat
and studied some book, Morgan and Hannibal busy in their long fight with
the weeds, and a magpie-like patch under some tree, where black Pomp lay
asleep in his white shirt and short drawers, while from the end of the
house came the busy sounds made by poor Sarah.

I think it was at that moment most of all that I quite thoroughly
realised what a delightful home we had built up in the wilderness. And
now it was a heap of ashes; my father, Hannibal, and poor Sarah
seriously hurt; Pomp gone too for aught I could tell; and Morgan here
talking so calmly and coolly of setting alight to the pile of
destruction lying there by our side.

Was it all true? I asked myself, and felt ready to rub my eyes and try
to rouse myself from the horrible nightmare dream from which I was
suffering.

I was awakened sufficiently the next moment by Morgan's words, as he
said in a quiet,