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122 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