ut making a covering of the skins they used for
saddles, they managed to get a few hours' sleep, and as it served to
refresh them and the horses, and knowing that rain in the desert is of
rare occurrence, they felt as if it was truly providential. They also
found their horses in the morning in better condition than they had
expected, and with a faint hope that they might reach a forest that
day, they set out expecting that, in all probability, they were near
land well moistened, and the showers they had received had been only
the extension of a larger one that had passed over a tract of country
supplying moisture for plenteous evaporation. This they knew the desert
could never do, and it caused their spirits to elate with hope. In a
few hours more a small speck was seen circling in the air. "A bird! a
bird!" cried the chief, pointing at the object. Howe's quick eye caught
the sight of it, when it disappeared, and was lost in the distance.

"Thank Heaven," cried Jane, fervently; "we shall be saved at last!" and
tears of joy filled eyes that trials could not dim.

"Yes, we are near a forest," said the chief; "the dark hour is passing;
may the day in its brightness repay us for its darkness."

"Amen to that!" said Sidney; "and may the day bring no evil worse than
the night."

"What can be worse," indignantly asked Edward, "than the terrible days
we have spent on these burning sands."

"Do not repine, Edward," said Jane, gently "Those bleaching bones we
passed indicate that others have fared worse than we have', for _we_
still live."

"They were nothing but Indians, and they get used to such things," said
Sidney.

"Does the young brave think the Indians cannot feel?" asked the chief,
reproachfully. "He will not repine at his lot, because red blood flows
in his veins, and he scorns to be a coward. Those that wail most feel
the least; they throw their griefs to the winds; but the Indian is too
proud to be pitied, and hides the grief in his heart, singing his
war-song to cover its workings."

"You make heroes of your people, chief," said Sidney, touched by the
deep tone of feeling with which these words were uttered.

"We are warriors and braves," returned the chief.

About noon the waving tops of trees became visible, strangely
intermixed with bold outlines which they found on a nearer approach to
be rocks. This time the trees proved to be real; and as they
approached, the forest grew more clearly defined, and tow