ating a most unpleasant sort of music, warned
us that we were in the neighbourhood of the Pawnee camp. It was
difficult to say when Noggin might take the opportunity of slipping
away. It might be at once, while all the noise was going forward, or it
might not be till the inhabitants of the camp were asleep. So we all
sat down and watched in silence.

It was agreed that Short should go forward and meet his friend, so as
not to alarm him. I must own that I had fallen asleep, and was dreaming
of old England and my comfortable arm-chair, when I was awoke by finding
my companions rising and beginning to move on at a rapid rate--I was so
sleepy that I could not tell where. On we went, no one speaking,
following each other as before, so I judged that it would be wise not to
speak either.

It was still very dark, all I could do was to see the person immediately
preceding me. On, on, we went: at last we began to go up hill, and I
found that we were approaching our own camp. The light of our fires was
shining brightly from it. Obed answered with a cheerful voice to the
challenge of our sentinels, and as we entered our stockade I found, for
the first time, that our party was increased by two persons. One was
habited in the full costume of a red-skin chief, and a big
commanding-looking fellow he was; the other was an Indian squaw; she was
a fine but modest girl, and she seemed to shrink back with true feminine
timidity from the gaze of so many strangers. To my surprise I found
that the handsome chief, who decidedly would have created a great
sensation in any London drawing-room, and, perhaps, have won the hearts
of half a dozen young ladies, and persuaded them to settle down as the
mistress of his faithful retainers in his extensive territories in the
Far West, was no other than Tom Noggin, whose adventures I had just been
hearing. I do not know what sort of an orator Tom might have made as an
Indian, his English vernacular was not of the choicest.

"I wish some-on you chaps would get this young woman of mine stowed away
with some of her own kind among the Indians, they'll know her, and
comfort her a bit, poor thing," quoth Tom. The words and tone were
really kind and kindly meant, but they sounded odd as coming from the
lips of a full-fledged red-skin warrior. Noggin at once fell into old
Short's plan, and having all laid down to take some rest, we packed up
our traps and were once more on the move. We accompanied