THE CHILD FOUND. 95 



as she thought, to die. Frightened as she was, sleep 

 weighed down her little eyelids, and she slept. She 

 was awakened, she said, by something licking her 

 little bare feet and face, and she -started up screaming 

 in affright, thinking it was a panther or a bear ; but 

 Shack leaped, and whined, and yelped in his great 

 gladness around her ; and when she knew it was him, 

 she felt safe. He stayed by her a few minutes, and 

 then darted away, and she was alone again, and as 

 frightened as ever. She dared not call, for fear the 

 panthers and bears would hear her, and come and tear 

 her to pieces. She had sat there a long time, when 

 something stirred among the bushes near her, and she 

 screamed out in her terror. It must have been that 

 Shack heard her, as he was guiding me forward at the 

 time he left me, though the sound didn't reach my 

 own ear. A few minutes after, Shack was by her side 

 again, glad enough to find her safe. He soon left her, 

 and when she heard my voice, she knew he was lead- 

 ing me to her. We were two good miles in the woods 

 then, but, Squire, that little girl that I loved so dearly, 

 that had been lost in them great wide woods, and been 

 found again, was light as my own heart, as I bore her 



