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taller. They were entirely naked, saving a breech-cloth fastened around their waist, and being hideously painted you can well imagine that they presented a most ferocious and savage appearance. They were armed with long lances and bows and arrows, and a few with old sin gle-barrel shotguns. These Indians, sev eral years afterwards, took some Texans prisoners, whom they cruelly murdered and eat, which so enraged the settlers that they fitted out an expedition against them and succeeded in exterminating the whole tribe, with the exception of a small remnant that effected its escape into Mexico. This is the only tribe of canni bals that has ever been known on the North American continent. Along the whole route from Copano we had seen great numbers of deer, some times as many as three or four hundred in a single drove, and so tame that we could approach openly within a feAv yards of them without their showing the least symptoms of fear. Os course, we had no difficulty in procuring fresh meat when ever we stood in need of it. Once, too, at the distance of half a mile, wo saw a large drove of wild horses ; but they wore much wilder than the deer, for when some of us attempted to ap proach them, they cir cled round us out of range of our rifles, stamping and snort ing, until at last one of them that seemed to be the leader of the gang, started off at full speed, and the rest following, in a short time nothing but a cloud of dust indicated the direction in which they had gone. Some years afterwards, when I was trailing some Indians with a company of Hangers, in the country lying between the Nueces and Bio Grande rivers, we met with a drove of wild horses, so large that it took us fully an hour to pass it, although it was travelling at a rapid rate and in a direction opposite to the one we were going! As far as the eye could ex tend upon a dead level prairie, nothing was visible except one dense mass of horses, and the trampling of their hoofs sounded like the roar of the surf upon a rock bound coast! The majority of per sons, no doubt, would be inclined to re gard this horse story as one that should be told to the “marines” alone; neverthe less, it is literally true, and many persons who were with me at the time can testify to the facts. During the night, a norther sprang up, BURKE’S WEEKLY. but as we were well protected by a thick clump of timber, that afforded plenty of fuel for our fires, we were not put to much inconvenience thereby. These northers, as they are called in Texas, are winds that spring up very suddenly from the North, at times during the winter season, sometimes dry, at others accom panied with rain or sleet, and which at first blow with great violence, but gradu ually subsiding in the course of one, two or three days, and are usually followed by a week or ten days of beautiful warm •weather. To travelers, unprepared for them, these northers are very disagree able visitants, and, indeed, instances have been known of persons freezing to death in them, when caught out in the open prairies without the means of kindling a fire. About sunrise in the morning, we struck camp and took the road again for Goliad, and in the course of two or three hours wc came in sight of the dome that sur mounts the “ Old Mission.” An hour or so afterwards, we entered the town and took up our quarters in a deserted stone building just outside of the Avails that en closed she church. Here Ave found about four hundred men under the command of Colonel J. W. Fannin, the nucleus of the army with which it Avas proposed to in vade the adjoining States of Mexico. Good Trick. A man had received a large lot of lob sters, fresh and lively', when a boy stood looking at them, accompanied by his dog. “Suppose you put your dog’s tail be tween the lobster’s claws,” said the man. “Agreed,” said the boy. The peg Avas extracted from the claws, and the dog’s tail inserted. Away went the dog off home, hoAvling at the squeeze his tail got from the lobster. “ Whistle your dog back, you young scamp,” said the man. “ Whistle your lobster back,” cried the boy, and left. ♦+> Little minds are tamed and sub dued by misfortune, but great minds rise aboA 7 e it. VEGETABLE INSTINCTS. Fa tree that is fond of wa ter is planted near some URc brook, it will set off all its principal roots in that di reetio'n. How does it knOAv fri the water to be there? And how LB does it knoAv that it will be able to reach the border of it ? To say, w in popular phrase, that the water attracts the roots in that direction, is to invent anew and very remarkable sort of attraction that pulls at roots in the ground, and turns them out at the point of starting —is a something cimated to account for the fact in question, which is even more difficult than the fact itself. Mr. Madison, for example, had an aque duct of logs, which, in reaching his house, passed by a tree especially fond of water at a considerable distance from it.— Abreast of the tree there Avas an auger hole in the log that had been filled with a plug of soft wood. Exactly thither ward the tree sent off a long stretch of roots, which forced their way through the plug, choking uji the passage, and Avere found there drinking like so many thirsty animals. Was it then the soft wood plug that attracted these roots? It certainly should be, on the attraction principle, for the water Avas just as near at other points as here. It is said that a strawberry planted in sand, Avith good earth a little way off, Avill turn its runners all in the latter di_ rection, and if the good earth is too far off to bo reached, the plant Avill make no effort on that side more than on the oth er—which is equivalent to saying that the plant has, in its life-principle, an in stinct of measurement. It does not mea sure the ground and then itself, and then compare the two; but it has an adaptive power by Avhich, without comparison, it graduates its action by its possibilities. - A Smart Minister. A little girl, five years old, came home from meeting and gaA T e her mother the following account of the minister. Older people haA r o seen preachers not unlike this one : “ Mother, I haA’e heard such a smart minister. lie stamped and pounded, and made such a noise ; and by-and-by be got so mad ho came out of the pulpit and shook his fist at the folks, and there wasn’t any one dared to go up and fight him.” +•* —— ‘Aunty,” said a three-year-old one dav. “I don’t like my aprons to be starch ed so much. So much starchness makes the stiffness scratch my bareness.” 67