206 LIFE IN THE FAB WEST. 



panions in scenes of fierce fight and bloodshed, passed in 

 review before him. A feeling of regret was creeping over 

 him, when Mary laid her hand gently on his shoulder. 

 One single ^ar rolled unbidden down his cheek, and he 

 answered her inquiring eyes : " I'm not sorry to leave it, 

 Mary," he said ; " but it's hard to turn one's back upon 

 old friends." 



They had a hard battle with Killbuck, in endeavouring 

 to persuade him to accompany them to the settlements. 

 The old mountaineer shook his head. "The time," he 

 said, " was gone by for that. He had often thought of it, 

 but, when the day arrived, he hadn't heart to leave the 

 mountains. Trapping now was of no account, he knew; 

 but beaver was bound to rise, and then the good times 

 would come again. What could he do in the settlements, 

 where there wasn't room to move, and where it was hard 

 to breathe there were so many people ? " 



He accompanied them a considerable distance down the 

 river, ever and anon looking cautiously back, to ascertain 

 that he had not gone out of sight of the mountains. Be- 

 fore reaching the forks, however, he finally bade them 

 adieu ; and, turning the head of his old grizzled mule 

 westward, he heartily wrung the hand of his comrade La 

 Bonte ; and, crying Yep ! to his well-tried animal, disap- 

 peared behind a roll of the prairie, and was seen no more 

 a thousand good wishes for the welfare of the sturdy 

 trapper speeding him on his solitary way. 



Four months from the day when La Bonte so oppor- 

 tunely appeared to rescue Brand's family from the Indians 

 on Black Horse Creek, that worthy and the faithful Mary 

 were duly and lawfully united in the township church of 

 Brandville, Memphis County, State of Tennessee. We 

 cannot say, in the concluding words of nine hundred and 

 ninety-nine thousand novels, that "numerous pledges of 

 mutual love surrounded and cheered them in their declin- 

 ing years," &c. &c. ; because it was only on the 24th of 

 July, in the year of our Lord 1847, that La Bonte and 

 Mary Brand were finally made one, after fifteen long years 

 of separation. 



