WHICH EIVEE? 43 



little valley. We were descending more rapidly, the 

 prairie rolls on either hand began to present to us abrupt 

 continuous slopes, and to be getting higher. Soon they 

 commenced to recede, and assumed the appearance of 

 miniature cliffs, and the creek to be bordered with thickets 

 of willows, wild-plum, underbrush of all kinds, brambles, 

 and vines. A little farther on we got into a gorge where 

 the creek was sixty feet wide and belly-deep to a horse 

 probably its gateway through the bluffs of the river it was 

 about to join ; there we found ourselves obliged to ford and 

 re-ford it many times as it crossed from point to point of its 

 lofty and precipitous banks. Occasionally too, we had to 

 cut our way through the matted jungles which bordered it, 

 to the sore trial of our tempers, and the injury of our 

 clothes and morals. The light continued to increase, the 

 rain nearly ceased, and a star or two was to be seen above 

 us. Suddenly the banks of the gorge broke away right and 

 left, and we were in the main valley of a river. There was 

 the long dark sweep of the timber, and away beyond it the 

 opposite bluffs. We halted and took a good long look round. 

 Which river was it ? If it should prove the Eepublican, 

 which way should we go when we reached the timber? How 

 know whether we were above or below our camp ? The 

 heavy rain had washed out all tracks : we had better halt for 

 the night in the first timber we got to. 



As we stood undecided, a far off twinkling glimmer 

 showed itself on the timber's edge away, miles from us! 

 it went out, it brightened up, it gleamed steadily awhile, 

 was seen no more, then glimmered again. It must be a 

 camp fire ! Our usual one could not be seen, but the boys 



