130 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 



there were any hostile red-skins in the neighbourhood, by 

 the step I had taken a stampede of my animals was now 

 impossible. A few of the longest hours I thus sat, my 

 presence reassuring the beasts, and when day broke, so still 

 had all become, that I doubt not I should have been asleep, 

 only that the hour preceding day is well known to be 

 invariably the time selected by Indians to carry out their 

 machinations. In the morning, quietly moving about 

 camp, as if pursuing unsuspiciously my usual avocations, I 

 particularly examined the locality, when, among the re- 

 maining scattered patches of snow, the easily-distinguished 

 moccasin track of an Indian was discovered, doubtless 

 made by a brave, who in search for game had got benighted, 

 and chance had caused to stumble across my hiding-place. 

 My camp was therefore no longer safe ; the coming night 

 he, with his companions, would be back, when woe betide 

 the solitary white man ! My horses in the morning I 

 accompanied to their feeding ground, not permitting them 

 to get beyond control, and as soon as their appetites were 

 sufficiently satisfied, I returned to my little home for the 

 last time. The few trifles I possessed were soon packed, 

 and nothing remained further to cause delay. Still I 

 waited a quarter of an hour longer, for the purpose of 

 building a pile of wood, in which I placed some smouldering 

 embers, in the hope that it would not blaze up till several 

 hours after dark an indication that I doubted not the red- 

 skins would construe into a certain evidence that I was still 

 ignorant of being discovered. On arrival my mare had 

 been a little tender in front from her hoofs having been 

 worn very close ; the period of rest had rectified this, and, 



