Wild Western Scenes | Page 2

black stump--A rough
tumble--Moaning--Stars--Light--A log fire--Tents, and something to

eat--Another stranger, who turns out to be well known--Joe has a
snack--He studies revenge against the black stump--Boone proposes a
bear hunt.

CHAPTER II.
Boone hunts the bear--Hounds and terriers--Sneak Punk, the hatchet-
face--Another stump--The high passes--The bear roused--The chase--A
sight--A shot--A wound--Not yet killed--His meditations--His friend,
the bear--The bear retreats--Joe takes courage--Joe fires--Immense
execution--Sneak--The last struggle--Desperation of the bear--His
death--Sneak's puppies--Joe.

CHAPTER III.
Glenn's castle--Mary--Books--A hunt--Joe and Pete--A tumble--An
opossum--A shot--Another tumble--A doe--The return--They set out
again--A mound--A buffalo--An encounter--Night--Terrific
spectacle--Escape--Boone--Sneak--Indians.

CHAPTER IV.
The retreat--Joe makes a mysterious discovery--Mary--A disclosure
--Supper--Sleep--A cat--Joe's flint--The watch--Mary--The bush--The
attack--Joe's musket again--The repulse--The starting rally--The
desperate alternative--Relief.

CHAPTER V.
A strange excursion--A fairy scene--Joe is puzzled and frightened--A

wonderful discovery--Navigation of the upper regions--A crash--No
bones broken.

CHAPTER VI.
A hunt--A deer taken--The hounds--Joe makes a horrid
discovery--Sneak --The exhumation.

CHAPTER VII.
Boone--The interment--Startling intelligence--Indians about--A skunk
--Thrilling fears--Boone's device.

CHAPTER VIII.
Night--Sagacity of the hounds--Reflection--The sneaking
savages--Joe's disaster--The approach of the foe under the snow--The
silent watch.

CHAPTER IX.
Sneak kills a sow that "was not all a swine"--The breathless suspense
--The match in readiness--Joe's cool demeanour--The match ignited
--Explosion of the mine--Defeat of the savages--The captive--His
liberation--The repose--The kitten--Morning.

CHAPTER X.

The dead removed--The wolves on the river--The wolf hunt--Gum fetid
--Joe's incredulity--His conviction--His surprise--His predicament--His
narrow escape.

CHAPTER XI.
Mary--Her meditations--Her capture--Her sad condition--Her mental
sufferings--Her escape--Her recapture.

CHAPTER XII.
Joe's indisposition--His cure--Sneak's reformation--The pursuit--The
captive Indian--Approach to the encampment of the savages--Joe's
illness again--The surprise--The terrific encounter--Rescue of
Mary--Capture of the young chief--The return.

CHAPTER XIII.
The return--The young chief in confinement--Joe's fun--His
reward--The ring--A discovery--William's recognition--Memories of
childhood--A scene--Roughgrove's history--The children's parentage.

CHAPTER XIV.
William's illness--Sneak's strange house--Joe's courage--The bee hunt
--Joe and sneak captured by the Indians--Their sad condition
--Preparations to burn them alive--Their miraculous escape.

CHAPTER XV.
Glenn's History.

CHAPTER XVI.
Balmy Spring--Joe's curious dream--He prepares to catch a fish--Glenn
--William and Mary--Joe's sudden and strange appearance--La-u-na,
the trembling fawn--The fishing sport--The ducking frolic--Sneak and
the panther.

CHAPTER XVII.
The bright morning--Sneak's visit--Glenn's heart--The snake
hunt--Love and raspberries--Joe is bitten--His terror and
sufferings--Arrival of Boone--Joe's abrupt recovery--Preparations to
leave the West--Conclusion.

WILD WESTERN SCENES: A NARRATIVE OF ADVENTURES.

CHAPTER I.
Glenn and Joe--Their horses--A storm--A black stump--A rough
tumble--Moaning--Stars--Light--A log fire--Tents, and something to
eat--Another stranger, who turns out to be well known--Joe has a
snack--He studies revenge against the black stump--Boone proposes a
bear hunt.
"Do you see any light yet, Joe?"
"Not the least speck that ever was created, except the lightning, and it's
gone before I can turn my head to look at it."

The interrogator, Charles Glenn, reclined musingly in a two-horse
wagon, the canvas covering of which served in some measure to protect
him from the wind and rain. His servant, Joe Beck, was perched upon
one of the horses, his shoulders screwed under the scanty folds of an
oil-cloth cape, and his knees drawn nearly up to the pommel of the
saddle, to avoid the thumping bushes and briers that occasionally
assailed him, as the team plunged along in a stumbling pace. Their
pathway, or rather their direction, for there was no beaten road, lay
along the northern bank of the "Mad Missouri," some two hundred
miles above the St. Louis settlement. It was at a time when there were
no white men in those regions save a few trappers, traders, and
emigrants, and each new sojourner found it convenient to carry with
him a means of shelter, as houses of any description were but few and
far between.
Our travellers had been told in the morning, when setting out from a
temporary village which consisted of a few families of emigrants, with
whom they had sojourned the preceding night, that they could attain the
desired point by making the river their guide, should they be at a loss to
distinguish the faintly-marked pathway that led in a more direct course
to the place of destination. The storm coming up suddenly from the
north, and showers of hail accompanying the gusts, caused the poor
driver to incline his face to the left, to avoid the peltings that assailed
him so frequently; and the drenched horses, similarly influenced, had
unconsciously departed far from the right line of march; and now,
rather than turn his front again to the pitiless blast, which could be the
only means of regaining the road, Joe preferred diverging still farther,
until he should find himself on the margin of the river, by which time
he hoped the storm would abate. At all events, he thought there would
be more safety on the beach, which extended out a hundred paces from
the water, among the small