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emptied on the floor. Oh, those biscuits .
I shall never forget them! None of your
little, thin, flimsy affairs, such as are
usually seen upon fashionable tables, but
good, solid, fat fellows, each as big as a
saucer, and with dark-colored hearts in
the centre, where the “shortening” had
settled in the process of baking. “ Like
Adam’s recollection of his fall,” the looks,
and above all the taste, of those biscuits
is indelibly impressed upon the tablets of
my memory.
When the coffee was ready I was in
vited to “fall to,” and you may be sure I
did not stand upon ceremony and wait
for a second invitation. As well as I re
collect, I think I was upon my seventh
biscuit, when Capt. Duncan mildly sug
gested that, in his opinion, I had better
“knock off,” for fear of disagreeable con
sequences. I made no reply, but seized
the eighth, and whilst I was disposing of
that, Capt. Duncan expeditiously cleared
the board, and deposited the remainder of
the eatables in the haversack. We then
mounted our horses, the pack horse hav
ing been turned over to me, and the next
day we safely reached the settlements on
the Brazos. Thus ended my adventures
for the time in Texas.
But I must tell my readers something
about my old companions, whom I met
with some weeks after my return to the
“settlements” east of the Brazos river. It
will be remembered that, when the Mexi
can discovered B and myself in a
clump of bushes, that II was lying
“perdue” in another a few paces off, in
which he remained hid until night, when
he continued his route, and after many
hair-breadth escapes from Mexicans and
Indians, he finally made his way 7 in to
where the Texan army was stationed,
east of the Brazos river, some ten days or
two weeks after I had arrived. At one
time he was so closely pursued by a party
of Mexicans that he had to take refuge in
a lake, where they fired repeated volleys
of musketry at him, but as his head was
only visible above the surface of the water,
none of their balls took effect upon him.
Fortunately, night was near at hand, and
the darkness soon concealed him from
their view. At another time, whilst in a
deserted house searching for provisions,
he was captured by two runaway ne
groes, who tied him hard and fast to a
post, and then went out, as they told him,
for the purpose of procuring clubs with
which to beat out his brains. In a few
moments they returned with a couple of
heavy bludgeons in their hands, with the
evident intention of carrying their threat
into execution, but one of them, at the
last moment, relented, and finally persua-
BURKE’S WEEKLY.
ded the other to spare II ’s life. They
then turned him loose, and gave him
something to cat and directions how to
avoid the Mexican forces on his way to
the Texan army.
I met with B a short time after ho
got to the “ settlements,” and he gave me
a full account of his adventures. He told
me that, after our separation in the La
Yaca bottom, he was captured immediate
ly by the pursuing Mexicans, who carried
him with them to their camp, and there
tied him to a tree, where they left him
standing all night. They had plenty of
provisions, stolen no doubt from the de
serted American settlements in the vicin
ity, from which they prepared an ample
supper. B , who was in a starving
condition, begged them for a mouthful to
eat, but they refused to give him any
thing, telling him it was no use to do so,
as they intended shooting him before
they left, in the morning. He then re
quested them to shoot him at once, but
they only laughed at him, and told him
he was “muy bravo” or very brave, but
that they couldn’t kill him just then, as
they were going to have a “shooting
match” in the morning, and that he was
to serve for the “ mark.” The next mor
ning, as soon as they had eaten their
breakfast, they pinned a white rag upon
the breast of B , loaded their scopets,
stepped back a few paces and presented
them at him, as if they intended to fire.
During all these preparations for his exe
cution, B abused and reviled them to
the extent that his limited knowledge of
the Mexican language permitted ; telling
them that they were cowardly thieves,
murderers, etc., and that the Americans
would yet pay them back for their treach
erous conduct; at all of which the Mexi
cans seemed highly amused, and laughed
heartily. At length, however, finding
that death had no terrors for B , they
laid their guns aside, and unbound him
from the tree, telling him to go, that he
was “ muy valiente ,” and that they would
not shoot him. Shortly afterwards they
mounted their horses and rode off, leaving
D in an exhausted condition for the
want of food, and from the fatigue he had
undergone in standing up all night bv
the tree to which had tied him.
Some days afterwards B was again
taken prisoner by another party of Mexi
cans, but in some way made his escape
from them, and eventually, as I have be
fore stated, reached the Texan army. He
subsequently returned to Georgia, his na
tive State, where I understood he died a
few years afterwards. Os the truth of
this report, however, I am not positive,
and it may be that he is still living ; at
all events, I never saw him after he left
Texas.
II remained in Texas, and was ap
pointed a captain in the regular army
He was with the troops that went out
upon the unfortunate “Santa Fe expedi
tion,” was taken prisoner and carried to
the city of Mexico, and thence to Vera
Cruz, where he contracted yellow fever
from which he died on his passage home
and was buried at sea.
I have nothing further to add, except
that when I left Texas, some weeks sub
sequent to this, finding it impossible, ow
ing to the crowded state of the vessel in
which I sailed, to take Flacco along with
me, I gave him in charge to my friend
K , who promised me he should be
well taken care of, and in fact he lived to
a good old age, and died the respected
progenitor of a breed of dogs that are still
highly prized in that section for their
valuable qualities.
THE END.
Written for Burke’s Weekly.
“ Mamma, Feel my Wings Grow.”
BE love little children—
love them with a love
not merely because of
ols, but because we be
lieve them to be great blessings—
one of the most precious gifts that
J % Providence bestows on us. In
their purity and innocence we
have our best type of Heaven’s inhabi
tants.
One of these stray sunbeams from
Heaven’s own glory blessed our household
once. He did not tarry long —but two
summers past when his sun set forever—
and yet long enough to point the way
from whatever was of earth earthy to
his own abode amongst the angels.
It had been a practice of bis mother,
when preparing him for his nightly rest,
to sing him a lullaby about “Angels
Wings.” One evening he came running
to her in great glee, pushing forward one
of his little, fat, chubby shoulders, and
said :
“Mamma, feel my wings grow.”
It was but a week afterwards that hi*
little eyes closed forever, and he winged
his way home, where a loving Savioui *
arm was ready to receive him.
Years have passed; the moonbeam*
play brightly over little Webber s giuW
but there are times, even now, when and
seems to his parents as if he was vi 1
them, and they could see “his " in n
grow.” Thank God for children!