ioneer, and delirium setting in, he began to rave,
speaking, however, slowly and distinctly, and without a tinge of the
squatter dialect, but in the purer English of his early days.

"There!" he exclaimed, pointing his finger, "you've come again. I knew
you would not let me rest."

"He's thinking of the Indians," remarked the captain, sorrowfully;
"the confounded red-skins!"

"I told you he stole it all. Will you harass me into my grave? A set
of vampires, sucking the life-blood of an honest man!"

"Now he wanders," said the captain; and, sending for the surgeon, the
latter opened his medicine case, and, lighting a match to read the
labels on his vials, administered an opiate, and the sufferer sank
into a troubled stupor.

"Ah!" whispered the mother to Tom, "it is not the savages that disturb
his mind so; it's the old agony of a wounded spirit."

About noon, the next day, they came in sight of the fort. How welcome
the frowning walls to the weary women and children! How sublime seemed
the national flag, floating proudly on the breeze, symbol of a united
sovereignty of states, powerful to protect its citizens on the ocean
and the land, in the teeming city, and in the wilds of the
wilderness!

General McElroy received the settlers in the kindest manner, causing
them to feel at once that they were among friends. Airy, quiet
apartments were assigned to the wounded man and his household, and
the ladies of the garrison vied with each other in their attentions to
him and his stricken family. Often would Mrs. McElroy come in and sit
by Mr. Jones, that his wife might get some rest. With her and her
husband Tom had become a great favorite, and they entertained a high
respect for the mother.

The squatter's life in the open air, roaming the prairies, tended to
build up for him a healthy physical organization, favorable to the
healing of the wound; and as this progressed, the doctor marvelled
that he did not get stronger. He was strangely liable to delirious
attacks, and opiates gradually lost their influence over him.

One day the surgeon entered as his patient, wildly raving, was
exclaiming, with great vehemence,--

"I tell you, again, that I have nothing to pay with, and you will give
me no chance to earn. O, what a load to carry! Debt! debt! debt! Shall
I never find rest?" Then, in a moment more, his thoughts relapsing to
another subject, he murmured, "What did the preacher say?
'Come--unto--me--and I will--give yo