see but what we were very lucky in having such a boy as Clarence with
us. I begin to understand him better." And Harry, who, for purposes of
vague poetical retaliation, would also drop in at that moment, would
mutter and say, "He is certainly the son of Colonel Brant; dear me!" and
apologize. And his mother would come in also, in her coldest and most
indifferent manner, in a white ball dress, and start and say, "Good
gracious, how that boy has grown! I am sorry I did not see more of
him when he was young." Yet even in the midst of this came a confusing
numbness, and then the side of the wagon seemed to melt away, and he
drifted out again alone into the empty desolate plain from which even
the sleeping Susy had vanished, and he was left deserted and forgotten.
Then all was quiet in the wagon, and only the night wind moving round
it. But lo! the lashes of the sleeping White Chief--the dauntless
leader, the ruthless destroyer of Indians--were wet with glittering
tears!
Yet it seemed only a moment afterwards that he awoke with a faint
consciousness of some arrested motion. To his utter consternation,
the sun, three hours high, was shining in the wagon, already hot and
stifling in its beams. There was the familiar smell and taste of the
dirty road in the air about him. There was a faint creaking of boards
and springs, a slight oscillation, and beyond the audible rattle of
harness, as if the train had been under way, the wagon moving, and then
there had been a sudden halt. They had probably come up with the Silsbee
train; in a few moments the change would be effected and all of his
strange experience would be over. He must get up now. Yet, with the
morning laziness of the healthy young animal, he curled up a moment
longer in his luxurious couch.
How quiet it was! There were far-off voices, but they seemed suppressed
and hurried. Through the window he saw one of the teamsters run rapidly
past him with a strange, breathless, preoccupied face, halt a moment at
one of the following wagons, and then run back again to the front.
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