is mark as swiftly as I could, and for the clump of trees
to which I had been directed. Oh, what a relief I had when I heard a low
voice humming there, 'Over the hills and far away'!"

When Mr. George came to this part of his narrative, Miss Theo, who was
seated by a harpsichord, turned round and dashed off the tune on the
instrument, whilst all the little company broke out into the merry
chorus.

"Our way," the speaker went on, "lay through a level tract of
forest with which my guide was familiar, upon the right bank of the
Monongahela. By daylight we came to a clearer country, and my trapper
asked me--Silverheels was the name by which he went--had I ever seen
the spot before? It was the fatal field where Braddock had fallen, and
whence I had been wonderfully rescued in the summer of the previous
year. Now, the leaves were beginning to be tinted with the magnificent
hues of our autumn."

"Ah, brother!" cries Harry, seizing his brother's hand. "I was gambling
and making a fool of myself at the Wells and in London, when my
George was flying for his life in the wilderness! Oh, what a miserable
spendthrift I have been!"

"But I think thou art not unworthy to be called thy mother's son," said
Mrs. Lambert, very softly, and with moistened eyes. Indeed, if Harry
had erred, to mark his repentance, his love, his unselfish joy and
generosity, was to feel that there was hope for the humbled and kind
young sinner.

"We presently crossed the river" George resumed, "taking our course
along the base of the western slopes of the Alleghanies; and through a
grand forest region of oaks and maple, and enormous poplars that grow
a hundred feet high without a branch. It was the Indians whom we had
to avoid, besides the outlying parties of French. Always of doubtful
loyalty, the savages have been specially against us, since our
ill-treatment of them, and the French triumph over us two years ago.

"I was but weak still, and our journey through the wilderness lasted a
fortnight or more. As we advanced, the woods became redder and redder.
The frost nipped sharply of nights. We lighted fires at our feet, and
slept in our blankets as best we might. At this time of year the hunters
who live in the mountains get their sugar from the maples. We came upon
more than one such family, camping near their trees by the mountain
streams; and they welcomed us at their fires, and gave us of their
venison. So we passed over the two ranges of the Laurel