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Catching Sunbeams.
Reaching: after sunbeams,
With a dimi<led hand—
That is right, my darling,
Grasp the golden band.
Fold it to your bosom,
Let it cheer your heart;
Gather radiant sunbeams,
Bid the clouds depart.
When your feet shall wander
From my side away,
You will find that evil
With tne good may stay.
Never heed it, darling,
Let it pass the while;
Gather only sunbeams.
Keep your heart from guile.
Grief may be your portion,
Shadows oim your way;
Clouds may darkly hreaten
To obscure the day—
Don’t despair, my darling,
There’s a Father's love.
How i-ould there be shadows,
With no light above?
Written for Burke’s Weekly.
JACK DOBELL;
Or, A Boy’s Adventures in Texas.
A STORY FOR BOYS.
CHAPTER IX.
SHOEING A COMRADE —A NORTHER —KIND-
LING A FIRE —INDIANS ABOUT A FRIGHT
—THE GNAWINGS OF HUNGER —TAKING
THE WRONG DIRECTION —GOT BACK NEAR
LY TO GOLIAD —A PARLEY—A CHANGE OF
LEADERS.
MWK EFOKE crossing the riv
er, B , who was a
very poor swimmer, had
thrown off his coat and
shoes, and, as the prairie had re
cently been burnt over, the sharp
stubble had lacerated his feet in
a dreadful manner. I knew he
would be unable to travel farther,
without some protection for his feet, so I
set to work, and, with some twine and a
pair of small scizzors that I happened to
have about me, I manufactured him a
very respectable pair of moccasins out of
the tops of my boots, which I cut off for
that purpose.
As soon as it was dark, we set out
again, as near as we could judge, in a
northeast direction, keeping our course
by the stars ; but about midnight it cloud
ed up, and a “norther” commenced to
blow, accompanied by a cold, drizzling
rain, and, finding it impossible to keep
our course any longer, we came to a halt
in a thick grove of timber. B , who
was without coat or hat to protect him
from the weather, became so much chill
ed that I was apprehensive he would per
ish before morning ; but among the good
articles left in my pockets was a small
metallic box, containing a flint with a
steel for striking fire attached to its ex-
33 U R 13 5 S WEEKLY.
terior rim. In one corner of this, I also
fortunately found a small piece of spunk,
not much larger than the head of a pin,
which, after many ineffectual attempts, I
at length succeeded in igniting. This I
dropped into a piece of cotton batting,
taken from the lining of my cap, and
swinging it rapidly backwards and for
wards in my hand, I at length got it into
a blaze. Collecting a quantity of fallen
timber and brushwood, we soon had a
roaring fire underway. Around this fire
we stretched ourselves upon the ground
and slept soundly until morning, notwith
standing the constant howling of the
wolves.
The “ mot,” or small grove of timber
in which we had stopped, comprised per
haps an acre of ground, and just outside
of it there was a strip of sandy soil entire
ly clear of grass. In the morning, when
we left the grove, we noticed a great
many fresh moccasin tracks in this sandy
soil, evidently made some time during the
night by a party of Indians, that proba
bly had been attracted to the locality by
the light of our fire. I cannot imagine
why they did hot make an attack upon
us, unless it was because they were igno
rant of our numbers, and of the fact that
we were unarmed. At any rate, we saw
nothing of them the next morning when
we left the grove.
W e set out in the same northeasterly
course we had traveled the day before,
and in an hour or so struck the timber
bordering upon the Coletto creek. Here
we laid down upon the grass to rest our
selves for a few moments, and scarcely
had we done so when a party of eight or
ten Mexican lancers made their appear
ance, riding along a road that ran within
fifty paces of where we were lying, but
of the proximity of which, until then, we
were totally ignorant. As ill luck would
have it, just as they came opposite to
where we were, they met another Mexi
can, and stopped to have a “confab” with
him. lor fully an hour, it seemed tome,
but in fact I do not suppose it was more
than twenty minutes, they sat upon their
horses conversing together within fifty
paces of where we were lying, and with
out a single bush intervening to hide us
from their view; but, fortunately, they
never looked towards us, as otherwise we
must inevitably have been discovered.
At length they rode on, and we were very
glad when we lost sight of them behind
a projecting point of timber.
The weather still continued cloudy and
drizzly, and having nothing to guide us,
we were very doubtful as to whether we
were pursuing the right direction. How
ever, we traveled on till night, and again
encamped in a thick “mot” of timber
This time we had no difficulty in starting
a fire, as I had taken the precaution, bet
fore leaving our other camp, to prepare a
quantity of tinder, by partially burning a
portion of one of the legs of my drawers
I had torn off for that purpose, which
for safety, I had carefully stowed away in
the top of cap.
Having eaten nothing since we left Go
liad, and only a small piece of beef about
the size of the palm of one’s hand, for two
days previous, we were beginning to suf
fer the pangs of hunger. Game we saw
everywhere in abundance, but being with
out guns, or other weapons to kill it. the
sight of herds of fat deer, and flocks of
wild turkies, suggestive as they were to
our minds of visions of roasted ribs and
juicy steaks, only served to aggravate the
cravings of our appetites. It was a sea
son of the year, too, when no berries or
fruits are to be found in the woods, and
the pecans and hickory nuts had all fallen
and been destroyed by the deer, wild hogs
and other animals. Notwithstanding our
hunger, we slept pretty comfortably upon
our beds of dried leaves, except that we
were occasionally aroused from our slum
bers by the howling of wolves, which were
sometimes so impudent as to approach
within a few paces of the fire near which
we were lying.
In the morning, the weather still cloudy
and cold, we set out again upon our tra
vels. IT being, by several years, the
oldest of the party, had heretofore taken
the lead, in which B and myself had
silently acquiesced, but, after travelingan
hour or so, I became satisfied he was ta
king us in a direction directly opposite to
the one we wished to go, and in this opin
ion I was confirmed, when in a short time
we came to a creek that I was confident
was none other than the Manahuilla,
which we had crossed the day we left
Goliad. I then told II that I was
sure we had taken the “back track,” but
lie was fully as confident wc had not, and
so we continued on until towards even
ing, when we came to several “mots of
live oak timber, not more than a mile and
a half from Goliad, of the identity of
which I was sure, having visited them
on several occasions whilst hunting in
their vicinity. II , however, evident
ly having but little faith in my recollec
tion of the locality, proposed that B
and myself should wait in one ol these
“ mots,” whilst he went on and reconnoi
tred the country ahead, and to this pro
position we consented. In about an hour
he returned and told us that he had been
in sight of Goliad, and that he had dis
tinctly heard the beating of drums in the