men.

In order to test what was afloat, and rather than return to the boat without something to eat, and perhaps without a good foundation upon which to establish my alarm, as well as to prevent George and the negro from bringing me under the epithet of sheer cowardice, I crept up within shooting distance, and peeping through the cane, I saw that the noise I had heard was made by a party of Indians, who, as I had conjectured, were throwing down turns of wood, with which to build a fire. With as little noise as possible I returned to the boat, and finding George already in, we rowed for the opposite side of the river, and after ascending about two miles, we landed near a cabin, from the inmates of which we begged provisions, and camped for the night; and the next day we reached our destiny, having been exposed all the route to the treachery of the Indians.

At this time I resided at the house of who had a large family of boys, one of whom, James, was a very haughty young man, and from some cause or other I began to feel quite an interest in him, and my reflections induced me to think, that if the proper means could be employed to humble him, he would be

more useful to himself and fellow-men, and better

calculated to meet the

demands for which his

For a beginning, one

God had designed him.

day, when the weather was extremely fine for the season of the year, I contrived to get him to go a fowling with me. I expected a change of weather, but never said a word to that effect to him, for I well knew how tender he was, having kept himself housed up all the previous part of the winter, while it mattered little with myself whether rain, hail-storm, or snow came, for such things had no terrors for me, and really I desired all three, for I believed he needed a great deal of hardening. According to my own suggestion, we had provided ourselves with but one quilt. The first seven miles brought us to as fine a little lake as we had ever seen, and in time to kill several wild geese and as many swans, out of a number that were swimming upon its smiling face. We had not gone many miles beyond this before night overtook us, when we sought the thickest spot of cane in our view for a resting-place, and by means of a little dry tow and a flash in the pan we produced fire enough to take effect on a pile of chunks, which were soon flaming up, and

making us feel very cheerful, my companion made happy by the prospects he thought he had of a good night's comfort, and myself, who always guess well at the weather, with those of a very bad one for him. And alas for the poor young gentleman! about eight of the hour-glass the sky became clouded; the wintry winds began to moan among the tree-tops and the cane; the rain began to flow down in heavy torrents. I turned my face aside and smiled. I knew the work was going on swimmingly. The rain continued to pour. I beheld his I beheld his eyes fixed upon the fire. In its warmth he had embarked all his hopes for comfort, and freighted all his aims against cold. The rain, if any odds, rolled down with increased rapidity. The fire began to disappear, and his eyes to widen; the last spark, smiling wishfully in the face of its destroyer, was struggling to be seen. His eyes now stretched into a wild stare. It was all I could do to contain myself. I pressed my hands heavily upon my sides, and being already brought to a half-squatting position, I thought I should split a laughing at the long sigh, almost amounting to a deep groan, he fetched as the only remaining

spark winked out. "Now the fire is out," said I, "and the wood so wet that it is impossible to rekindle it." James here broke his silence by commencing to curse his luck. The rain-drops congealing far above us, began to fall in great flakes of snow, which in a few hours lay fourteen inches upon the ground. This was followed by a sudden increase of cold, and the sleet began to fall like hail from a thunder-cloud, and the weather became so intensely bitter that certainly the thermometer, had there been one in this dreary region that night, would have dropped its mercury to twenty below zero. James was now shivering with wet and cold, and cursing the very Ruler of the tempestuous night; but to no purpose. The snow and sleet at this time afforded us a little light. We saw the cane already grown weary under its icy habiliments; bowed down and interlocked, and our camp environed on every side as by the walls of a prison. The cold became still more intolerable. The old quilt was frozen as stiff as a board, and to lay down without it we thought we must freeze to death, and yet we had no space in which to walk for exercise, and while I laughingly jumped up and down in

one spot, James cursed and "nursed his wrath to keep his anger warm,” in another. At length, said I, in a calm tone, "James, what are we to do to avoid freezing to death?" He answered, "There is nothing that we can do ;" and the way he said it savored so much of resignation, that I thought then was my time to strike, and I immediately summoned a man by the name of Shakspeare to my aid, and changing his words to fit the occasion, commenced soliloquizing in a very serious tone:

"To be, or not to be, that is the question;

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The rains, sleets, and snows of this outrageous night;

Or to take courage 'gainst a sea of troubles,

And by opposing end them? To die, to sleep—

No more;-and by a sleep to say we end

The aching of our fingers and toes, and the frost
That we are here heir to : 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To die! ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause. There's the respect
That makes calamity of so long a life."

At this he interrupted me, saying, “Joe, I shall freeze to death." I again turned my face