HOME AGAIN. 283 



pressed as the rifle came to his cheek, and at the sharp 

 report, one of the two Indians from whom the last shots 

 came, tossed his arms in the air and fell from the bank 

 where he was standing with a splash into the stream and 

 swirled oiF with the black water. 



*' Ha ! ha ! ye black devils," laughed Jackson, sinking 

 down in the bottom of the canoe from the arms of the 

 boy that was holding him. 



" Oh, maussa ! you hurt ; dear maussa, speak, maussa !" 

 cried Lem, kneeling over the planter, and unbuttoning 

 his vest. 



The wounded man looked fixedly, and a guttural noise 

 came from his chest at every breath and a perspiration 

 dampened his iron grey locks. The boat, unheeded, 

 turned and drifted with the tide, and Mike's canoe, in 

 which Lou Jackson was riding, seeing something wrong, 

 waited till we came up to them. 



" Father," said Lou, as the canoes swung together, 

 speakuig in a low, hurried voice, " I am here, your 

 daughter, Lou." 



Jackson did not speak, though he looked shoreward 

 with a wandering eye. 



"Dear Father! God is good; he will not do this! 

 speak to me, say it is not so !" 



Jackson's lips moved, we listened, and low and faint, 

 we heard a nursery prayer : 



" Now I lay me down to sleep, 

 I pray the Lord my soul to keep," 



and then some words indicating that he was thinking of 



