butler it is all a matter of chance for to you the plain truth i don t know who to depend upon a quick eye a foot and a ready hand will be our friends then with the pistols at your saddle besides a pair in your pocket a for close quarters and my rifle here for a long shot horse shoe robinson major i am not much doubtful but what we shall bold our own how far are we from s asked butler not more than a mile replied horse shoe you may see the just ahead lives upon the top of the first hill on the other side is that fellow to be trusted better with the help of gold major than without it was never over honest but it is worth our while to make a friend of him if we can our travellers had now reached the river which was here a smooth and deep stream though by no means so broad as to it to the distinction by which in its lower portion it has earned its name it here flowed along jn deep and melancholy shade butler and his companion were destined to encounter a difficulty at this spot which less hardy travellers would have deemed a serious embarrassment the boat was not to be seen on either side of the river having been carried off a few hours before according to the information given by the inmates of a negro cabin the family of the by a party of soldiers robinson regarded this obstacle with the resignation of a practised philosopher he nodded his head significantly to his companion upon receiving the intelligence as he said there is some mischief in the wind these are always about in and when they collect the boats on the river it is either to help them forward on some house burning and business or to secure their retreat when they expect to have honest men at their heels it would be good news to hear that was near their which by the by is not neither you would be told of some pretty sport then major s means replied butler i fear are equal to his will there are heavy odds against him and it isn t often that he can venture from his hiding place but what are we to do now ha ha do as we have often done before this our legged ships and take a wet jacket coolly and as that devil lieutenant used to tell us when he waa horse shoe robinson going to make a charge of the we no time to lose major and if we had i don t think the river would run dry so here goes with these words robinson plunged into the stream and with his rifle resting across his shoulder he plied his voyage towards the opposite bank with the same as if he had on dry land as soon as he was fairly afloat he looked back to give a few to butler head up stream major lean a little forward so as to sink your horse s nose nearer to the water he all the better for it your reins and give him play you have it now it isn t in a day s ride to get a cool seat once in a while here we are safe and sound he continued as they reached the further margin and nothing the worse for the excepting it be a trifle of about the breeches the two companions now galloped towards the higher grounds of the adjacent country by the time that they had gained the summit of a long hill that rose immediately from the plain of the river robinson butler that they were now in the vicinity of s dwelling the sun had sunk below the horizon and the varied lustre of early twilight tinged the surrounding scenery with its own beautiful colors the road as it wound upwards gradually emerged from the forest upon a tract of open country given signs of one of those original which at that day were sprinkled through the great wilderness the space that had been snatched from the of nature for the purpose of comprehended some three or four fields of cultivated land these were yet spotted over with of trees that seemed to leave but little freedom to the course of the and a and a piece of half cleared ground occupying the side of one of the adjacent hills presented to the eye of our travellers a yet more uncouth spectacle this spot was still clothed with the native trees of the forest all of which had been death stricken by the axe and now heaved up their withered and branches towards the heavens without leaf or spray in the phrase of the they had been some years before and were destined to await the slow n shoe robinson decay of time in their upright attitude it was a grove of huge that had already been into an hue by the sun and whose stiff and dry members rattled in the breeze with a amongst the most of these victims of the axe the of winter had done their work and thrown them to the earth where the shattered and boughs lay as they bad fallen and were slowly into their original dust others whose appointed time had not yet been fulfilled gave evidence of their struggle with the frequent storm by their from the perpendicular line some had been caught in falling by the boughs of a neighbor and still leaned their huge upon these awakening the mind of the spectator to the fancy that they had sunk in some deadly into charitable and friendly arms and thus locked together their but doom it was a field of the dead and the more striking in its from the contrast which it furnished to the rich and lively forest that with all 