er,--and
he dared not leave the tree after the battle, not knowing what it
all meant. He had a bewildered idea that there had been an
attack on the Indians by a party of whites, but which had been
victorious he could not tell. So he watched on, trying to
determine this point, until late in the night, when he saw a dark
body moving cautiously from the cabin.

"The Indians have taken the cabin," he concluded, "and now they'll
burn our house as they did the others."

And yet it puzzled him to see how closely together the savages kept,
instead of being scattered about in all directions, as they were
before. He could see them moving quietly away, and thought some of
them were mounted on their ponies. After they were well out of sight,
resting Bub's head against the skin powder-bag,--for the little
fellow, overcome by weariness, had fallen asleep,--he crawled from his
hiding-place and reconnoitred. Suddenly he stumbled over a dead
Indian, lying with his rifle beside him; and soon he came across
another. But all was still in the cabin.

"There has been a battle," said Charlie to himself, exultantly, "and
the Indians are driven away;" and he entered the house.

All was dark and quiet; so, feeling his way to the chimney, he raked
open the ashes, and found a few sparks. Going out, he gathered twigs
and limbs, and, heaping them on the hearth, blew them into a blaze;
then running to the tree, he awakened Bub, and hurried him to the
cabin, and returned for his Crusoe provisions and ammunition.

"Where's father and mother?" asked Bub, looking round in dismay.

"I think," said Charlie, soothingly, with a profound air, "that the
settlers have got together and driven off the Indians, and taken our
folks where they'll be safe; and now, Bub, we'll live here like
Robinson Crusoe on the island, and you shall be my Friday till our
folks come back; for, you see, they'll find out that we ain't with
them, and they'll come and take us away."

"Can't we go where our folks is now?" inquired Bub, beginning to cry.

"It's so dark we can't find them," said Charlie.

"Won't the Indians come and hurt us?"

Charlie started at the thought.

"I don't know," he replied, shaking his head doubtfully; "'twould be
just like them. But I'll tell you what I'll do. There's a good many
Indians been killed around the house, and I'll just go out and get all
the rifles I can, and then let them try it if they want to. Why,
Robinson Crusoe drove off twenty