ndians, and these few on
pretty good terms with the white trappers, no watch was set. Bertram
lay down with his tattered cloak around him, and, taking a little book
from his pocket, read it, or appeared to read it, till he fell asleep--
on observing which, March Marston crept noiselessly to his side, and,
lying gently down beside him, covered him with a portion of his own
blanket. Ere long the camp was buried in repose.

CHAPTER SIX.

THE DANGERS OF THE WILDERNESS--AN UNEXPECTED CATASTROPHE, WHICH
NECESSITATES A CHANGE OF PLANS--A DESCENT UPON ROBBERS PROPOSED AND
AGREED TO.

There are few passages in Holy Writ more frequently brought to
remembrance by the incidents of everyday life than this--"Ye know not
what a day or an hour may bring forth." The uncertainty of sublunary
things is proverbial, whether in the city or in the wilderness, whether
among the luxuriously nurtured sons and daughters of civilisation, or
among the toil-worn wanderers in the midst of savage life. To each and
all there is, or may be, sunshine to-day and cloud to-morrow; gladness
to-day sadness to-morrow. There is no such thing as perpetual felicity
in the world of matter. A nearer approach to it may perhaps be made in
the world of mind; but, like perpetual motion, it is not to be
absolutely attained to in this world of ours. Those who fancy that it
is to be found in the wilderness are hereby warned, by one who has dwelt
in savage lands, that its habitation is not there.

March Marston thought it was. On the morning after the night whose
close we have described, he awoke refreshed, invigorated, and buoyant
with a feeling of youthful strength and health. Starting up, he met the
glorious sun face to face, as it rose above the edge of a distant blue
hill, and the meeting almost blinded him. There was a saffron hue over
the eastern landscape that caused it to appear like the plains of
Paradise. Lakelets in the prairies glittered in the midst of verdant
foliage; ponds in the hollows lay, as yet unillumined, like blots of
ink; streams and rivulets gleamed as they flowed round wooded knolls, or
sparkled silvery white as they leaped over rocky obstructions. The
noble river, on the banks of which the camp had been made, flowed with a
calm sweep through the richly varied country--refreshing to look upon
and pleasant to hear, as it murmured on its way to join the "Father of
waters." The soft roar of a far-distant cataract was heard mingl