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} n< r moss that a person in its centre was
wholly invisible to any one without, yet
was of such narrow compass as to be easi
ly watched by a single sentinel posted
within. He did not allow the men to
approach this place directly.
“I have a mind,” said ho, “to try a
turn upon our red-skin brothers that may
bother them a little. There is our camp
ing place,” he continued, pointing to it
from the distance of a quarter of a mile,
“ but we will make them believe we have
gone farther.”
Halting them by a well-marked tree,
he detailed Simpson to conceal himself in
a covert within full view, for the purpose
of seeing whether any enemies were up
on their trail before dark, and Dr. Gor
don remained with him. The others went
half a mile farther, to a place where they
cooked and ate their supper, Wildcat be
ing dispatched by a circuit with the ra
tions intended for Dr. Gordon, Simpson
and himself. From the fire then made
the men dispersed, each a different way,
as if seeking a sleeping place in its imme
diate neighborhood; instead of which,
however, they re-assembled at the ap
pointed tree, and were marched in single
fie from it to their sleeping place. In
this last movement each man was in
structed to step exactly in the track of
his file-leader, as Indians do upon the
war-path, and the last man of the file,
skilled in such work, walked backwards
for a short distance, carefully obliterating
all signs of the trail. As soon as they
were safely lodged within the little grove
and a sentinel posted, Tomkins said:
“Men, if you will keep perfectly quiet,
you may all take a sound sleep to-night,
all except one for keeping guard. Unless
some of you snore uncommon loud, I
think Johnny Iledskin will be bothered
to track out our sleeping place.”
The men smiled their approval of his
device, and being weary with a long clay s
march, gave themselves up very soon to
the comforts of their leafy bivouac. Os
course no fire was permitted, and no one
was allowed to go beyond the limits of
the covert.
The peep of day, next morning, saw the
camp in motion. Nothing had disturbed
their repose during the night, not even
the prowling of a panther, nor the howl
ing of a wolf, and an examination b\'
Wheeler and Wildcat, who made a wide
circuit around the encampment as soon
as it was light, revealed no signs of a
nioccasined foot in pursuit. There was
reason to hope that their oft baffled pur
suers, unless urged on by uncommon ear
nestness of purpose, would be discouraged
13 U R KIT’S WEEK LY .
from further attempts. Provision enough
for the day’s necessities were cooked at
the morning fire, and by the time the sun
had shed his full beams on land and wa
ter, they were once more on their way.
About ten o’clock that morning, how
ever, the scout was seen again to wave
his cap, and on making his report he said
that lie had observed a large bunch of
moss hanging rather unnaturally from a
tree within fair gun-shot of the beach,
and that, after a time, not liking its looks,
he had dropped behind a hillock of sand
and levelled his gun at it, as if about to
shoot, when the bush evidently shook as
if by someone standing behind.
On this report, the Sergeant dispatched
Wheeler and Wildcat, his two keenest
observers, to go with the scout and ex
amine the spot more carefully, being sup
ported by the rest, who ensconced them
selves behind the ramparts of sand and
levelled their guns ready to fire upon the
hidden enemy, if he dared to show him
self. The reconnoiterers returned, con
firming the report of the scout, and adding
that behind the tree on which the moss
hung, as if placed there recently for the
purpose of enlarging the screen, the
ground had been trampled, but by what
or by whom they could not conjecture,
unless it had been by someone who had
worn a pad of moss tied under the foot to
hide the track, for they had seen what
answered to a man’s tracks, thus disguis
ed, making off from the tree in a straight
line with the position of the scout, and
leaving small fragments of moss behind.
“More trouble ahead!” Tomkins mut
tered as he listened to this report. “More
Indians dogging our trail.”
ABOUT LIGHTNING.
day a thunder storm
home from our ride.—-
The clouds were very
Ma 9 black.
“ I am so ’fraid of thunder,” said
mk Jessie, jumping up in her mother’s
Jy lap, and laying her head on her
m mother’s bosom.
“Thunder will not hurt you,” said
Tom ; “it is the lightning.”
“What is thunder?” asked little Will.
“It is the clouds halloing,” said Jessie,
“and I’m afraid of it.”
“And what is lightning, Jessie?” asked
Tom, laughing.
“It is God’s fire-works,” said M ill; “I
am sure of that.”
“I had a great deal rather have thun
der without the noise,” said Jessie.
“ But you can’t,” cried Tom.
There Tom -was mistaken. In damp
summer evenings we often see flashes of
light along the edges of a cloud. It is
called heat lightning, and has no thunder
with it, nor is it dangerous.
That which darts in zigzag lines and
forks out or looks like balls of fire shoot
ing from the clouds makes a loud noise,
and often strikes barns and houses and
kills people.
“What is lightning?” asked Tom.
It is electricity, and electricity is a cu
rious fluid found in nature. If you stroke
a cat’s back in the dark you will see
sparks fly. That is electricity. If you
run fast, with dry shoes, over a stout car
pet in a hot room, sparks will come out.
That is electricity. Bub a glass roller
with a dry cloth, and it will draw feath
ers and straw towards it. That is elec
tricity. Some things carry or “conduct”
electricity. Iron and copper are conduc
tors ; silk and glass are not.
In old times people did not know what
lightning was. They thought it was
God’s way of showing his anger. But
Benjamin Franklin, that observing and
thinking printer, concluded by what he
saw that lightning was electricity, so one
day he went out doors in a thunder storm,
and sent a kite up to the clouds to bring
the lightning down. It ran down the
string of the kite to an iron key, and the
iron was full of it.
Why did it not run down to Franklin
and kill him ? Ah, he thought of that.
So he tied a silk string to the end of his
hemp string, and held by that, for, as I
told you, silk will not conduct electricity.
That made Franklin safe. When the key
was charged with lightning, Franklin
knocked it with his knuckles and felt
a shock,—just the strange prickly feeling
people have from an electric shock.
Now Franklin was a man who always
tried to turn his knowledge to some good
account; so he invented lightning rods,
which you know are made of iron or
copper, and run outside of a house
from a chimney to the earth, to receive
and carry the lightning into the ground,
where it will do no harm. In that way
houses are safe from its effects. We should
bo careful when we are in a thunder
shower. It is dangerous to stand under
a tree or beside a haystack, or at an open
door or windows, or by the walls or chim
neys.
David calls thunder the voice of the
Lord. God is in the cloud ; God is in the
w ind; God is in the lightning; God is in
the rain. They all say, God made and
governs me.
Is it not pleasant to feel that God holds
the reins of everything? — Child’s Paper.
167