332 WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTERS. 



just reach me ; he would occasionally toss up his arms in 

 exultation, or jump into the air, striking his heels together 

 twice or thrice e'er he came down, and make sundry other 

 antics, to the evident astonishment of his horse, who would 

 suddenly jerk backwards, while Tom, in total unconsciousness, 

 would tug away at the lariat, uttering some comical expletive, 

 until he got him started again, and then go on rejoicing ! 



I did not mention the circumstance to the woman, having 

 determined that she and Tom might settle the affair after 

 their own fashion. For several days I could see nothing 

 of him, though the wood and water necessary for us was 

 regularly deposited at the door. The woman, or myself as 

 it happened, would take it in ; and, as she made no comment 

 upon the obvious singularity of the circumstance, I did not, 

 of course, allude to it. Indeed, the terms of our intercourse 

 were so monosyllabic that I could only speak to her concern- 

 ing matters of plain necessity. Her wound had to be cared 

 for, but most of all that of the husband ! She sometimes 

 remembered to cook, but when she did not do so I attended 

 to that necessary duty myself. My friend had not returned 

 as I expected, nor had we heard a word from him as yet. 



The husband grew better with unexpected rapidity, and 

 when he finally was able, with slight assistance, to resume 

 his accustomed chair, it was a grand occasion with us ; for 

 the woman had evidently clung with a pertinacity, which was 

 still afraid to precipitate its despair, to the hope that when 

 he had recovered the use of his constitutional strength suffi- 

 ciently to be able to use his limbs for locomotion, the faculty 

 of speech would return to him therefore she had applied 

 herself to the restoration of his physique exclusively, and had, 

 with an obvious feeling of trepidation, avoided calling out 

 from him the slighcst attempt at using his voice. Now came 

 the shock in full ! We had stated him in the chair, and he 

 glanced around with a beaming look upon the instruments of 

 his labor. He even picked them up, such as were near him, 



