are only permitted to abide but a brief space; and a hearty repentance of past errors, and a firm resolve to obey the requisitions of the Omnipotent in future, were in that hour conceived and engraven indelibly upon his heart. “Mr. Boone—Mr. Boone—Mr. Boone!” cried Joe, softly. “Dod! don’t make sich a fuss,” said Sneak. “Be silent,” whispered Boone, gliding to Joe, and gazing out on the snow, where he beheld about twenty savages standing erect and motionless, not eighty paces distant. “I came within an ace of shooting,” said Joe, “before I thought of what you had said. I pulled the trigger with all my might before I remembered that you said I musn’t shoot till you told me, but as good luck would have it, my musket wasn’t cocked.” Boone went to each of the other loopholes, and after scrutinizing every side very closely, he directed Sneak and Glenn to abandon their posts and join him at Joe’s stand, for the purpose of discharging a deadly volley at the unsuspecting foe. “Does it not seem cruel to spill blood in this manner?” whispered Glenn, when he viewed the statue-like forms of the unconscious Indians. “Had you witnessed the barbarous deeds that _I_ have seen _them_ perform—had you beheld the innocent babe ruthlessly butchered—your children—your friends maimed, tomahawked, scalped, _burned_ before your eyes—could you know the hellish horrors they are _now_ meditating—you would not entertain much pity for them,” said Boone, in a low tone, evidently moved by terrible memories, the precise nature of which the one addressed could not understand. But Glenn’s scruples vanished, and as a matter of necessity he determined to submit without reserve to the guidance of his experienced friend. “I should like to know how them yaller rascals got up here so close without being eyed sooner,” said Sneak to Joe. “That’s what’s been puzzling me, ever since I first saw them,” said Joe, in scarce audible tones. “Split me if you havn’t been asleep,” said Sneak. “No indeed I havn’t,” said Joe. “I’ll declare,” he continued, looking out, “I never should have thought of _that_. I see now, well enough, how they got there without my seeing them. They’ve got a great big ball of snow, half as high as a man’s head, and they’ve been rolling it all the time, and creeping along behind it. They’re all standing before it now, and just as I looked one moved his leg, and then I saw what it was. This beats the old boy himself. It’s a mercy they didn’t come all the way and shoot me in the eye!” “Hush!” said Boone. “They must have heard something, or supposed they did, or else your neglect would have been fatal to you ere this. They are now waiting to ascertain whether they were mistaken or not. Move not, and speak no more, until I order you.” “I won’t,” said Joe, still gazing at the erect dark forms.