thing, although he seemed to be sound asleep, and his face appeared as stolid as any wooden effigy. The sneaking rascals could not even play the game of this flimsy deception well. During an hour the silence was terrible-for the roar and creaking wails of the stormy winds through the deep forest outside, and the mournful beat of the lashed waters, were the only sounds: since the voices of the wild creatures of the darkness and the wilds were all stilled-while within, the deep, irregular breathing of the simulating ruffians constituted a depressing under-tone. I grew excessively nervous-the presence of these wretches was a fearful incubus in connection with our other surroundings, and the discomfort of our general position was not a little increased when, after this interminable hour, I perceived-for I had kept my eye most constantly fixed upon the black-browed fellow as the most dangerous of the party-that he changed his position so as to command a full view of me, and as I drew my slightly-separated lashes nearer together, I could feel the cold, glittering point from his half-open, furtive glance, questioning my face. There was something so essentially wolfish in this trick, that I involuntarily shuddered, and was just in the act of springing to my feet, with the purpose of making an end of this uncertainty, by a coup de main of some sort, when I noticed a movement from the bed in the corner, which induced me to wait and see if they would begin an active demonstration on their part.

My red-headed host had also turned over, and I saw that he, too, was watching H and myself through his halfopened eye. Rest assured those of you who may, by any contingency, be placed in suspicious relations to the predatory man-that he always acts most upon the animal instincts-that, in a word, he is a wild beast of prey! and that if you have studied the habits of the wild beast well, you will know the tricks, the feints, and the modes of plunder and murder most likely to be adopted by the human wolf, wildcat, panther, tiger, lion or bear. Only make up your mind

to regard him as more the brute than the man, and you will find that your studies in natural history have not been thrown away.

These wretches were wolves, and I had often seen this animal exhibit this counterfeit sleep before in actual nature, and therefore knew what it meant. The joke was, though, that my friend had actually out-wolfed the wolves at their own game of counterfeit, and to all appearances I had been. nearly as successful, for they began now to stir rather simultaneously.

The sleep of Yankee had continued as profound as from the first; my friend's face seemed as stolid as ever, and I suppose I too must have looked the sleeper better than the wolf could counterfeit it, for they clearly took it for granted that I was sound asleep since they commenced telegraphing to each other now through the silence by gestures!

"Suddenly there came a rapping" at the thin plank door; the fellows did not stir, nor did we! Now came knocks louder and more frequent, which left us both without any pretext for remaining quiet any longer, so we sprang to our feet simultaneously, and as if really awakening from a deep sleep, and asked, "What is the matter?-what does this mean?"

The men deliberately and sluggishly arose, and the host opened the door, while I threw on an additional piece of bark to the fire.

Out from the cavernous dark emerged the most grotesque form that ever Retsch figured as the lank-haired goblin of some haunted fountain, creeping up to stare upon the light, and fright its fated victim.

He was dripping from every stringy lock, and each tatter streamed with its separate stream. His face, ghostly cadaverous and thin, seemed from its hollow eyes to stare the jaundiced famine of a sick vulture-sickened on the green sance of slime, amidst which its offal prey had floated. Too rich!--too rich! for even such a stomach.

It was indeed a horrible creature-possessing a life the most strangely incomprehensible that can be conceived, and the only parallels to which, in the disguise of humanity, that are to be found among us, exist in the buzzard race of ragpicking gutter-rakers, which the dreadful distortions of European life have weekly vomited upon our shores.

The creature was what is called a boat or river thief-one who lived by petty thieving-a prowler along the desolate river shore, from small settlement to settlement a comparative harmless wretch, appropriating everything he could lay his hands upon in the shape of movable or convertable property; boats, poultry, pigs and groceries, left exposed one night upon the landings. He had evidently received a severe striping lately-most probably for some petty theft as I could see the blue whelks and blood-crusted scars plainly enough through the loop-holes of his tattered shirt.

It was droll indeed to witness the airs of "indignant virtue" forthwith assumed by the delectable and "chosen" innocents who constituted the inmates of the hut. They rose at once upon the poor miserable devil, as the wolf snarls through white tusks at the feeble carrion crow, or at the slow-winged, obscene aura, that comes flapping in slow glide above a promised feast. He begged for food in vain, and before he had time to whine out his pitiful story, they seized and hurled him out into the darkness from whence he had emerged, floating on a drift-log down the fretful river. I felt as if the time had come when I must act, if ever. So standing behind these virtuous gentry, just as they had succeeded in turning out the poor river-thief, by their united efforts, my friend and myself presented ourselves at the door with weapons cocked, and ordered them peremptorily off, telling them that we knew them to be far worse and more dangerous scoundrels than the poor creature they had thrown into night.

"Now!" said I, "we understand you fully for a set of

cut-throats and robbers, and we give you fair warning that the first man of you who touches the boat which is fastened to the river shore down there, I will shoot, and with an aim that never misses-remember that."

The rascals slunk away into the dark along with the repudiated Kelpie of the desolate river, and we were quickly left alone.

To barricade the door with trunks and all the cord-wood we had at command, was the first movement, and then to take my position as sentinel at the port-hole window, which overlooked the place of the boat, was the next. Not a word passed between my friend and myself. He resumed his seat next the door upon his trunk, and there he continued stolidly to sit.

The long rifle of which I had considered myself justified in depriving my treacherous host, lay rested upon the port-hole, and bearing upon the precious boat which was to rescue us from this terrible isolation amidst ruffianism in the morning.

Oh, a long, long time passed-God only knows how long it was!-and still I was standing watching the poor little canoe for I could yet distinguish that frail craft-the position of which I had jealously marked, having directed that it should be at the foot of a tall sepulchral sycamore, that stood out with its white bark as a relief against the dreary gloom.

At last, I saw two shadows creeping along the dim shore, the cold, misty twilight, as the sombre morning crept onwards, making them more vague.

I had shivered and stood uncertain, anxious and distrustful so long, through this weary night, that everything seemed. at last-now that nature was giving out-unreal, and when I saw palpably before my eyes two men enter this boat, and heard immediately the beat of oars or paddles, what could I do other than fire at the objects in the boat? A shriek told all the story, and the boat was instantly whirled down the

stream.

The only immediate consolation that I ever received from

this scene, was that the very fellow whom I considered the most dangerous of the group-and who was the black-browed scoundrel that I have particularized-was the person who received in his own breast the ball which I suppose he had intended should strike the "river chicken-thief," as he had immediately endeavored to throw himself in the bottom of the boat. But the ball had been too swift for him!

We afterwards heard that this man was a horribly notorious boat-robber and murderer, and richly deserved his fate, for when this den was broken up, a month or two subsequent, we ascertained that they had sent off for help and guns, and stealing the boat was the preliminary movement to an attempt to fire and storm the cabin and murder us in order to get possession of the boxes of specie, as they considered those unlucky cherry-wood cases of surveying instruments which our Yankee was engaged in peddling about the West, and which had so aroused their cupidity.

We got across next morning, of course, for the sons of my friend having heard the boat stop during the night, were on the alert, and taking my rifle-shot for a signal, were soon

across in a boat to our rescue.

We left Yankee blubbering on the bank-for he had now slept off his stupefaction-but as there was a steamboat in sight, we thought ourselves justified in leaving him to his terrors for awhile. He deserved the lesson; and yet, as we moved off, the meek Song Thrush sang as sweet a song from out the dark shadows of that old wood, as if murder had never prowled there!