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THE MIDNIGHT CROSS.
IN IDYLS.
The Virginians of the Valley.
To W. N. N.
Kniehdiest of the Knightly
'xfc? race
JjUJPJ That, since the days of old,
fHave kept the lamp of chivalry
Alight in hearts of gold 1
The Kindliest of the Kindly hand
That rarely hated ease,
Who rode with Raleigh round the
land,
And Smith around the seas.
Who climbed the blue embattled hills
Against uncounted foes,
And planted there, in vallies fair,
The Lily and the Rose.
Whose fragrance lives in many lands —
Whose beauty stars the earth,
And lights the hearths of happy homes
With loveliness and worth.
We thought they slept!—the men who kept
The names of noble sires—
And slumbered, while the darkness crept
Around their vigil fires 1
But, aye, the “golden Horse-Shoe” Knights
Their Old Dominion keep,
Whose foes have found enchanted ground,
But not a Knight asleep 1
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Written for Burke’s Weekly.
THE YOUNG EXPLORERS;
OR, 80Y-UFK IN TEXAS.
BY JOHN C. DUVAL,
Author of if fuck Dobell j or, A Boy's Ad
ventures in Texas," “ The Adventures
of Big-Foot Wallace," etc
CHAPTER XIV.
'The Horses llecovcred —The Bee Tree — Hunt
ing the Mexican Lion —Jerking Venison —
The Fishing Party—Cudjo’s Mishap.
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HE first thing in the morning,
nc^e Seth sa d ( Med our
* horses and started out to hunt
up the runaways, leaving strict orders
that no one should stir from camp until
we returned. Taking the trail of one
of the animals, we followed it for
about half-a-mile, where, much to
our satisfaction, we found the tracks
of the other horses, showing evi
dently that they had come together at
that point; and a short distance be
yond, we discovered them all quietly
grazing in an open bottom near the
creek. As their ropes were dragging,
we secured them all without difficulty,
and took our way back to camp, con
gratulating ourselves upon our good
luck in finding them so much sooner
than we had anticipated.
By the time we had reached camp,
Cudjo had breakfast prepared for us,
and as soon as we had despatched it,
and re-staked all the animals, Uncle
Seth, Mr. Pitt, Henry, Willie and Cudjo
started off to cut the bee trees; whilst
Lawrence and myself remained behind
BURKE’S WEEKLY FOR BOYS AND GIRLS.
to take care of camp and guard the
horses.
The bee trees were but a little way
off, and in about hour the party re
turned, bringing with them twenty-five
or thirty pounds of beautiful white ho
ney-comb, which they had taken from
one tree. As this was as much as we
could possibly eat during the time we
expected to remain at our present
camp, and as we had no means of car
rying honey along with us, they con
cluded to leave the other two for the
next exploring party that might pass
that way.
Willie came back, leading Cudjo by
the hand, who had been so terribly
stung by the bees that both of his eyes
were closed up hard and fast, and his
mouth looked like a big Bologna saus
age with a gash cut in it.
“Why, how comes it, Cudjo,” said
Lawrence, “that the bees stung you
and didn’t sting anybody else? ”
“I dunno, Mass Lawrence,” Cudjo
replied, “but soon de tree chop down,
ebery one of de bees take right arter me
and chase me clean to de creek bottom
’fore dey cotch me; but dey did cotch
me at last, and pop me in de mout and
in bofe eyes, till dey swell up jess like
you see ’em.”
“Why didn’t you climb up a tree?”
said Lawrence.
“Oh! go way, Mass Lawrence,” said
Cudjo, “you jess pokin’ fun at me now.
I ’spec I’se nebber going to hear de last
’bout dat tree.”
Willie gave him a pan of cold water
and a towel, and after bathing his
swollen phiz for some moments, one
eye partially opened, and his lips sub
sided to something like their usual di
mensions.
“ Now, boys,” said Uncle Seth, “ me
and Mr. Dobell will go out to where he
shot the Maxican lion, and see if we
can track him up. Mr. Pitt will take
command, and he musn’t let anybody
leave camp till we git back.”
Just as we were saddling our horses
to start, we heard a great clucking of
wild turkeys in the creek bottom oppo
site to us, and presently five or six
large gobblers came flopping into the
trees right over our tent. Willie brought
one of them down with his double-bar
rel gun, and Mr. Pitt shot another,
before they flew.
“Purty well done, boys,” said Uncle
Seth; “and I hope you’ll have ’em
nicely cooked for dinner by the time
me and Mr. Dobell come back.”
Mounting our horses, we rode off,
and in a little while came to the place
where I had encountered the lion the
evening before. Dismounting, we fas
tened our horses securely to some trees
in the vicinity, and then going to the
spot where the lion had lain down after
I had wounded him, we found that
traces of his blood were still distinctly
visible upon the dry leaves and twigs
with which the ground was covered.
Following these carefully, we at length
came to a dense thicket in the bottom,
into which the wounded animal had
made his way, as we could plainly per
ceive by the bushes and vines, which
were broken and twisted where he had
forced a passage through them.
“Now,” said Uncle Seth, stopping a
moment to recap his gun and pistols,
“we must keep a good look-out, fur if
the varmint was badly wounded, he
didn’t go a great ways, and the chances
are he’s somewhere in this thicket yet.”
Proceeding cautiously along the trail,
in a little while we came to where the
lion had laid down for some time, as
was evident from the great clots of
coagulated blood that were scattered
about the place.
“You’\e gin him a hard hit, Mr.
Dobell,” said Uncle Seth; “and I
wouldn’t be surprised if he was as
dead as a mackerel by this time.” And
in fact we had gone but a short dis
tance further, when Uncle Seth ex
claimed, pointing to a number of tur
key buzzards perched upon a tree :
“Yonder’s your lion, Mr. Dobell.
You’ll find him under that tree, as cer
tain as shootin.” And sure enough,
when we went up to the spot, there he
lay as dead as a hammer.
“ By jingo,” said Uncle Seth, walk
ing around him, “he’s a ‘staver,’ cer
tain ; but the tarnal wolves have been
at him, and they’ve spilt his hide en
tirely. Its a great pity, for it would
have made a splendid robe for MasteiL
Willie.”
Uncle Seth said he was the largest
Mexican lion he had ever seen, and
he had killed a great many. But the
wolves had torn his hide in a dozen
places, and we concluded it was not
worth taking. So after cutting off his
tail to take along with us as a trophy of
our success, we returned to the place
where we had left our horses, and
mounting them, rode back to camp.
When we got there, we found the
two gobblers spitted before the fire,
and just done to a turn ; and such a
dinner as we made upon roast turkey,
honey, hot coffee and hard tack, “beat
all natur,” as Uncle Seth would say.
As some of our equipments needed
repairing, particularly the rigging of
the pack-mule, we determined to re
main at our camp until the next day.
Another reason was, that while Uncle
Seth and I were hunting the lion, Mr.
Pitt had killed a very fat buck, which
had ventured up within gun-shot of
camp, and we wanted to “jerk” a
quantity of the venison to take along
with us.
We were almost totally ignorant of
the character of the country ahead of
us, and therefore concluded it would be
most prudent to take an ample supply
of meat along, for fear we might not at
all times be able to procure game when
we needed it.
Uncle Seth told us that, frequently
in his hunting and trapping expedi
i tions, he had traversed extensive re-
gions where no game could be found —
not even a squirrel; and consequently
it was always the safest plan for parties
visiting unexplored countries to take as
much provender along with them as
they could well carry without overload
ing their horses.
Uncle Seth volunteered to repair the
rigging for the pack-mule, and Mr. Pitt
and Lawrence proffered their service?
to jerk the venison. This is done by
cutting the meat into thin slices, spread
ing them upon a low scaffolding made
of small poles laid an inch or two apart,
and keeping up a slow fire under it for
five or six hours, occasionally turning
the slices so that every portion of the
meat may be exposed to the action of
the fire. Prepared in this way, it will
keep for a long time, and though rather
dry and tasteless, answers as a pretty
good substitute for fresh, when seasoned
with a hunter’s appetite.
Willie was on guard, and as there
was nothing for the rest of us to do,
Henry, Cudjo and myself rigged up our
fishing lines, and went off' to a deep
pool about a hundred yards from camp
to catch a mess offish for supper. On
our way we captured two or three dozen
grasshoppers, with which we baited our
hooks, and as fast as we threw them in
the water they were seized by the fish,
with which the pool seemed to be liter
ally swarming. In a few minutes we
had a score of fine perch and bream
tlj^ban^p
sport hugely,
with delight whenever he brought a fel
low safely to the shore.
“I ’clar to gracious, Mass Henry,”
said he, “I nebber see fish bite so
greedy before. Dar go my cork again ;”
and giving a violent jerk, he snapped
his pole in the middle.
“There, now,” said Henry, “your
fishing is spoilt for the day. ’
“No, he ain’t,” said Cudjo, pulling
in his tackling; “I mity soon get an
other pole.”
And he hurried off towards the upper
end of the pool, where there was a
dense thicket of undergrowth, into
which he quickly disappeared. What
happened to him in this thicket will be
told in the next chapter.
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Largest Book-making City in the World,
s ||gf -
< WJMOR more than a century Leip
sic has had the reputation of
issuing more books than any
other city in the world. It has 258
publishing firms, employing a personal
staff of between 800 and 900 persons,
and giving work to 47 printing establish
ments, which employ 1000 journeymen,
300 apprentices, and 450 women. The
branch houses connected with the pub
lishing firms, out of Leipsie, number
3500. Berlin is said to stand next in
order.