CHAPTER XXV.

Boat-building again.-Unlucky Ruth. - The Woods on Fire.Dangers on Land and Water. - The Wounded Girl. A Home among the Mountains. The Bottle-tree. The Bee-hunt. Bean-coffee.-The Lost Hunters.

1

Ar the first merry cry of the laughing jackass, which announced the dawn as regularly as the English cockcrow, the workmen rose to labor at their hopeful undertaking; and before many hours were passed the canoes were nearly finished, and the women were busy cutting down grass for seats; when Ruth, who had left them, came rushing back through the wood, with her wildest look of distraction, crying out, "They seed me! Miss Marget, they seed me!"

"Thou unlucky lass!" exclaimed Jenny. "Where hast thou been? and who's seen thee?"

"Them black men, they seed me!" answered she. "I were cutting some oats for my hens; and I heared 'em shouting out their coo-ee, and when I looked round I seed a lot of 'em, a long way off, and I skriked out; I could n't help it, Miss Marget, and then they coo-eed again, and off I ran. But I'se feared they heared me skrike, onyhow."

Margaret, in deep dismay, communicated this unfortunate event to her brothers, and Arthur went through the wood to reconnoitre. From a hidden retreat he observed a troop of men, still at a great distance, who appeared to be stooping down to mark some track on the ground, from which he judged Ruth's cries had been

332

A FIRE IN THE GRASS.

unnoticed. He returned in haste to report his observations.

66

"They've tracked us, sure enough," said Wilkins. Sharp's the word, lads, we may distance 'em yet, if we work hard. We 'se run down t' water at a bonnierate."

"I will watch and report their approach, while you all work at the boats," said Margaret. "Where shall I stand, Wilkins?"

"Just here, Miss," answered he, "aback of this thick bush. There's yer peep-hole; and shout when they get close up."

Margaret's first shout was a terrific one. Wilkins!" she cried in a frantic voice.

"Arthur!

"Oh! God

help us! whither shall we flee? The wretches are firing the wood."

The savages, taking advantage of a north wind, had fired the long dry grass a common practice with the natives. It was already fiercely blazing, and rushing towards the wood with resistless fury. The ground on which the travellers had encamped, and the spot where the young men were working, they had fortunately cleared for beds, and for seats in the boats; and now, while Jack and Arthur finished the canoes, the rest cut down the brushwood round, and flung it into the river, leaving a space of twenty or thirty yards wide quite cleared. But beyond that rose the lofty trees, that, once blazing, must shower down destruction on them.

Already the crackling of the trees announced that the conflagration was begun in the woods, and that no time must be lost, if they hoped to escape from it. Flights of white cockatoos, of bright-colored parrots, and glittering bronze pigeons, rose screaming from their deso

DRIVEN TO THE WATER.

333

lated homes, and affrighted opossums sprang from their nests, swung on the trees, or fell senseless with the smoke on the ground. But in this time one canoe was completed and launched, with the women, all the baggage, and Mr. Mayburn and Hugh to direct it. They had been swept down the river to a considerable distance from the fire before the second canoe, imperfectly completed, whirled off with the rest of the family, who reached their friends at a point of safety, with wild looks and scorched hair.

Then they all rested a moment, to look back on the terrific and still spreading conflagration, by the red light of which they saw the frightful outline of the dark forms, among whom, though now naked, and scarcely less dark than the rest, they distinguished the muscular and ungraceful form of Peter, which strangely contrasted with the stately, slender, and agile forms of the natives.

"He's not lit on them t' other rangers yet," said Wilkins. "That's a good job, onyhow; for, ye see, they'd horses, and we'd fairly been hunted down like foxes." Augmented by the recent rains, the river flowed in an uninterrupted course, and before the evening and the calls of hunger induced them to arrest their flight, the grateful family believed they must have progressed twenty-five or thirty miles to the south-east, with very slight exertion, through new and lovely scenes of hill, vale, rocky mountains, and rich forests.

Then, on the margin of the river, beneath the shelter of a thick wood, they landed, to thank God for their escape, and to take rest. Mussels, a sort of cray-fish, and the river-cod, formed their supper, which was cooked in fear and trembling, lest the smoke of their

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A NATIVE SETTLEMENT.

fire should bring on them the savages, or the flames should spread to the brushwood, a catastrophe they now regarded with horror.

Before they set out the following morning, the canoes were completely finished, and oars and paddles added: thus their progress was safe and easy, and for three days no accident arrested their course; but on the fourth day they were compelled to land, to repair a rent in one of the canoes, and were startled at their labor by the sound of the "coo-ee," and an alarming rustling among the trees. Without delay the canoes were carried to the water, and all embarked; nor had they proceeded twenty yards before a large opening appeared in the wooded bank, which had evidently been cleared by fire. Here they beheld the first permanent settlement of the natives they had yet met with. Many large huts stood round, formed of boughs, and thatched with bark. Several fires were burning, around which the women and children were gathered, and a number of men, armed with spears and clubs, advanced to the bank with threatening aspect, when they saw the ca

noes.

Loud and angry words were heard, which Baldabella interpreted to be, "What for white men come here? Go away! go away!" And the way in which they waved their clubs and stone tomahawks was very intimidating.

"Best take no notish of their antics, Mr. Arthur," said Wilkins; and, all agreeing in the wisdom of the counsel, they rowed forward, the men still uttering defiance against the strange invaders, and apparently amazed that their threats were received with indifference. But Ruth, whom Jenny had been ineffectually

endeavoring to calm, at last could no longer control her terror, and poured forth such a succession of shrieks, that the savages seemed encouraged, and immediately directed a volley of spears against the canoes.

The swift motion happily discomfited their attempt, and but one spear took effect, seriously wounding the right arm of Ruth, which she had held up to shield her face.

A few moments carried the boats beyond the reach of the weapons, and they continued their voyage, till they believed themselves safe from the pursuit of the assailants. Mr. Mayburn and Margaret bound up the wound of Ruth, which bled profusely, and was very painful, and she could not be persuaded that she should She declared that she was killed, and she earnestly begged that she might be buried in a church-yard, till Jenny, out of patience with her cowardice, said,

ever recover.

-

"Be quiet, ye silly wench; where think ye we're to find a church-yard among these heathens?"

"Then they'll eat me, Jenny!" she cried, in great horror.

"Be comforted, Ruth," said Margaret; "you are under the protection of a merciful God; and as long as we are spared, we will take care of you, and even bury you if it be His will that you die before us. But, believe me, Ruth, though your wound must be painful, there is no danger for your life, unless you cry and fret yourself into a fever; so pray be patient."

if

"I will, Miss Marget," sobbed she. "Indeed I will,

you will feed my hens, and gather corn, whiles, for 'em. Shame on them black savages as burned down all that good corn."