it is the burning water," said the chief, "dip your hand in
and taste it."

"Salt! a salt spring!" cried the delighted trapper, on placing a drop
of the water on his tongue. No wonder it caused a sudden excitement and
great joy; for it was months that they had been without it, and it was
a privation under which they had suffered greatly, as its loss made
many a dish unpalatable that otherwise would have had a fine relish.

"The Great Spirit has led us here, and will finally deliver us from our
wanderings," said the chief, who was equally as well pleased, but it
was not his nature to make any extravagant exhibition of passion.

"Well, chief, the Great Spirit has our thanks, for this last blessing.
It is a gift of great value in our isolated position," said the
trapper.

On arriving at the cabin, they found them all safe, but suffering from
great anxiety at their prolonged absence, which fled on their return in
safety, their arms laden with the fruits they had gathered, the quality
of which they desired to test. The children listened with wonder at
what they heard in regard to the discoveries, it sounded so like a
fairy tale, and when assured that it was all really there as described,
and that they should see it themselves within a few days, they seemed
to forget their forlorn condition in the pleasure it afforded them.

The crusted salt they had gathered, gave them more real pleasure at
their dinner that day than is often experienced in many a life time--a
pleasure, satisfaction and joy that they could never have enjoyed, had
they not been deprived of it so entirely as they had been.

Here we might moralize if we had the room, but moralizing is out of the
question. We have a history, a complication of incidents to relate that
caused certain effects to develope themselves, and it is our only aim
to cause others to moralize--to lead inquiring minds into certain
directions by revealing something of the heretofore unwritten past.

The next morning Howe and the chief returned to the temple, as they
called the building on the elevation, and scraping the accumulated mass
of rubbish from the floor swept it with a broom made by tying the twigs
of hemlock on a long stick. A rude broom enough, but one often used as
far east as the new settlements in Pennsylvania to this day. When this
was done, they found the floor covered by a slippery black mould that
could not be swept off, and which they would have to remove by
scrubbin