ldren, and guard them from
danger through the darkness of the night.

CHAPTER X.

The three that remained at the cottage retired to rest. As the blaze of
the fire in front of the cottage died away, young Mayall discovered that
the Indian chief became restless and uneasy, and would suddenly awake
from sleep and grasp his rifle and then peer out into the dark
surrounding forest, as if some monster of the wood was about to make a
deadly leap towards him. After straining his eyes for naught he would
again resume his rustic bed.

As soon as sleep began to steal over his troubled brain he would spring
from his bed and grasp his weapons of war. The night gradually wore
away, and the great luminary of the world began to light up the East.
Esock Mayall and the Indian chief rose from their restless beds and
finished dressing their bears, and got the wagon and goods, with his
father, mother and the three children that wore on the opposite side of
the creek, over to the cottage, whilst the young bride was preparing
their breakfast.

Breakfast being over, the Indian chief said he must be up and away
before the sun licked up the morning dew. He had lodged in that cottage
the first and last night; that thrice in his sleep he had dreamed of
death and a dishonored tomb, when no phantom of the night was near, not
even the sound of waters or the whisper of the breeze was heard among
the lonely trees; and yet the dream was thrice repeated. Esock Mayall
told him he must wait a short time, and his wife would prepare him some
provisions, and he would let him have a horse to ride as far as the
Mohawk River, and that would carry him beyond danger. The chief
consented to wait a short time for the horse and provisions, but said
there was danger in delay.

Whilst the young bride was preparing her father's provision, Wolf-hunter
cast his keen eye up the creek in the direction of the bear fight, and
saw three strange Indian hunters approaching with their silver-mounted
rifles, armed with tomahawks and hunting-knives. They came rapidly
forward until they reached the place where they killed the mammoth bear,
then halted, viewed the meat that hung on the branches of some trees,
and then came directly towards the cottage. The Indian chief began to
retreat, when Wolf-hunter cried out:

"No danger. Face the music."

This Esock Mayall understood to mean, "Never fear, but be ready," and
sat his gun down by his side, and Wolf-hunter did the