AN INCIDENT 157 



anthem till, swelling fuller and clearer on my excited 

 ear, it at length went over me with a sea-like roar, 

 then died away in the far solitude. God seemed near 

 me, there, in the fearful night, and His voice was 

 speaking to me. How calm the sleepers around me 

 lay in the firelight, reposing as quietly in the wild 

 uproar, as if naught but the dews of heaven were 

 gently distilling, and yet how helpless they appeared 

 in their slumbers ! God alone was their keeper, and 

 I never felt more deeply the protection of that pa- 

 rental hand, than there at midnight. 



The moon at length arose on the darkness, and the 

 wind gradually lulled to a gentler motion. I threw 

 myself on the ground, and watched the bright orb as 

 it slowly mounted the heavens, with feelings I Will 

 not attempt to describe. 



It was now about one o'clock, and I was endeavor- 

 ing to compose myself to slumber, when there occur- 

 red one of those ludicrous incidents that makes one's 

 romance vanish like mist, and yet derives half of its 

 comicality from the time and circumstances in which 

 it occurs. As my eyes were resting on the fine pro- 

 portions of a young, athletic backwoodsman, who was 

 lying near the smouldering brands on the open earth, 



