iant stars; and then, just as in his faintness,
hunger, and misery, he had determined in his own mind that he would be
obliged to sit there and suffer the long night through, and began
wondering how long it would be before morning, he became aware of the
fact that Nature is bounteously good to those who suffer, for he saw
that Jem kept on nodding his head, as if in acquiescence with that which
he had said; and then he seemed to subside slowly with his brow against
the side.

"He's asleep!" said Don to himself. "Poor Jem! He always could go to
sleep directly."

This turned Don's thoughts to the times when, after a hard morning's
work, and a hasty dinner, he had seen Jem sit down in a corner with his
back against a tub, and drop off apparently in an instant.

"I wish I could go to sleep and forget all this," Don said to himself
with a sigh--"all this horror and weariness and misery."

He shook his head: it was impossible; and he looked again at the dark
shore that they were passing, at the shimmering sea, and then at the
bronzed backs of the warriors as they paddled on in their drowsy,
mechanical way.

The movement looked more and more strange as he gazed. The men's bodies
swayed very little, and their arms all along the line looked misty, and
seemed to stretch right away into infinity, so far away was the last
rower from the prow. The water flashed with the moonlight on one side,
and gleamed pallidly on the other as the blades stirred it;
and then they grew more misty and more misty, but kept on
_plash_--_plash_--_plash_, and the paddles of the line of canoes behind
echoed the sound, or seemed to, as they beat the water, and Jem
whispered softly in his ear,--

"Don't move, Mas' Don, my lad, I'm not tired!"

But he did move, for he started up from where his head had been lying on
Jem's knees, and the poor fellow smiled at him in the broad morning
sunshine. Sunshine, and not moonshine; and Don stared. "Why, Jem," he
said, "have I been asleep?"

"S'pose so, Mas' Don. I know I have, and when I woke a bit ago, you'd
got your head in my lap, and you was smiling just as if you was enjoying
your bit of rest."

CHAPTER FORTY TWO.

TOMATI ESCAPES.

"Have they been rowing--I mean paddling--all night, Jem?" said Don, as
he looked back and saw the long line of canoes following the one he was
in.

"S'pose so, my lad. Seems to me they can go to sleep and keep on, just
as old Rumble's mare used to doze away