"That is indeed a fine cataract, and you have well named your location
from it," observed the lieutenant. "I wish I had had my sketch-book with
me; I might have made a drawing of it, to carry away in remembrance of
my visit here."

[Illustration: "ROARING WATER."]

"I will send you one with great pleasure," I answered.

"Do you draw?" he asked, with a look of surprise, probably thinking that
such an art was not likely to be possessed by a young backwoodsman.

"I learned when I was a boy, and I have a taste that way, although I
have but little time to exercise it," I answered.

He replied that he should be very much obliged. "Does your sister
draw?--I conclude that young lady is your sister?" he said in a tone of
inquiry.

"Oh yes! Clarice draws better than I do," I said. "But she has even less
time than I have, for she is busy from morning till night; there is no
time to spare for amusement of any sort. Uncle Jeff would not approve of
our 'idling our time,' as he would call it, in that sort of way."

The lieutenant seemed inclined to linger at the waterfall, so that I had
to hurry him away, as I wanted to be back to attend to my duties. I was
anxious, also, to hear what account Bartle Won would bring in.

But the day passed away, and Bartle did not appear. Uncle Jeff's
confidence that he could have come to no harm was not, however, shaken.

"It may be that he has discovered the enemy, and is watching their
movements; or perhaps he has been tempted to go on and on until he has
found out that there is no enemy to be met with, or that they have
taken the alarm and beat a retreat," he observed.

Still the lieutenant was unwilling to leave us, although Uncle Jeff did
not press him to stay.

"It will never do for me to hurry off with my men, and leave a party of
whites in a solitary farm to be slaughtered by those Redskin savages,"
he said.

At all events, he stayed on until the day was so far spent that it would
not have been worth while to have started.

Clarice found a little leisure to sit down at the table with her
needle-work, very much to the satisfaction of the lieutenant, who did
his best to make himself agreeable.

I was away down the valley driving the cattle into their pen, when I
caught sight of Bartle coming along at his usual swinging pace towards
the farm.

"Well, what news?" I asked, as I came up to him.

"Our friend Winnemak was not romancing," he answered. "There were fully
as many wa