k behind him. He fell on his hands and knees;
the gun was thrown forward and struck against a tree so violently, that
it exploded; in its flight it had turned completely round, so that, at
the moment of discharge, the barrel was in a line with the man's arm and
leg, and thus the extraordinary wound was inflicted.

To crawl from the spot where the accident occurred took the poor fellow
nearly twelve hours, and he performed this trying journey during the
night and morning over a rugged country and without food.

The surgical operation engaged Jack's attention the greater part of the
forenoon. When it was completed and the Indian made as comfortable as
possible, he went out with the men to visit the nets which were set at
the rapids about two miles higher up the river.

CHAPTER SIX.

JACK HAS A DESPERATE ENCOUNTER.

We never can tell what a day or an hour may bring forth. This is a
solemn fact on which young and old might frequently ponder with
advantage, and on which we might enlarge to an unlimited extent; but our
space will not admit of moralising very much, therefore we beg the
reader to moralise on that, for him--or herself. The subject is none
the less important, that circumstances require that it should be touched
on in a slight, almost flippant, manner.

Had Jack Robinson known what lay before him that evening, he would--he
would have been a wiser man! Nothing more appropriate than that occurs
to us at this moment. But, to be more particular:--

When the party reached the nets, Jack left them to attend to their work,
and went off alone to the vats, some of which, measuring about six feet
in diameter, were nearly full of fish in pickle.

As he walked along the slight track which guided him towards them, he
pondered the circumstances in which he then found himself, and,
indulging in a habit which he had acquired in his frequent and prolonged
periods of solitude, began to mutter his thoughts aloud.

"So, so, Jack, you left your farm because you were tired of solitude,
and now you find yourself in the midst of society. Pleasant society,
truly!--bullies and geese, without a sympathetic mind to rub against.
Humph! a pleasant fix you've got into, old fellow."

Jack was wrong in this to some extent, as he afterwards came to confess
to himself, for among his men there were two or three minds worth
cultivating, noble and shrewd, and deep, too, though not educated or
refined. But at the time of which we