ceased, and the stars are appearing."
Saying this, Glenn led the way to the wagon.

"I'd be willing to swear on the altar that it was a huge bear, and
nothing else!" replied Joe, as he mounted and drove on, the horses now
evincing no reluctance to proceed. One after another the stars came
out and shone in purest brightness as the mists swept away, and ere
long the whole canopy of blue was gemmed with twinkling brilliants.
The winds soon lulled, and the dense forest on the right reposed from
the moaning gale which had disturbed it a short time before; and the
waves that had been tossed into foaming ridges now spent their fury on
the beach, each lashing the bank more gently than the last, until the
power of the gliding current swept them all down the turbid stream.
Soon the space between the water and the forest gradually diminished,
and seemed to join at a point not far ahead. Joe observed this with
some concern, being aware that to meander among the trees at such an
hour was impossible. He therefore inclined toward the river, resolved
to defer his re-entrance into the forest as long as possible. As he
drove on he kept up a continual groaning, with his head hung to one
side, as if suffering with the toothache, and occasionally reproaching
Pete with some petulance, as if a portion of the blame attached to his
sagacious pony.

"Why do you keep up such a howling, Joe? Do you really suffer much
pain?" inquired Glenn, annoyed by his man's lamentations.

"It don't hurt as bad as it did--but then to think that I was such a
fool as to go right into the beast's clutches, when even Pete had more
sense!"

"If it was actually a bear, Joe, you can boast of the thrilling
encounter hereafter," said Glenn, in a joking and partly consoling
manner.

"But if I have many more such, I fear I shall never get back to relate
them. My face is all swelled--Huzza! yonder is a light, at last! It's
on this side of the river, and if we can't get over the ferry
to-night, we shall have something to eat on this side, at all events.
Ha! ha! ha! I see a living man moving before the fire, as if he were
roasting meat." Joe forgot his wound in the joy of an anticipated
supper, and whipping the horses into a brisk pace, they soon drew near
the encampment, where they discovered numerous persons, male and
female, who had been prevented from crossing the river that day, in
consequence of the violence of the storm, and had raised their tents
at the edge o