plain. It was not until one approached within half a mile of it that it
resolved itself into a copse of butternut-trees sunken below the distant
levels. Here once, in geological story, the waters of Butternut Creek,
despairing of ever crossing the leagues of arid waste before them, had
suddenly disappeared in the providential interposition of an area of
looser soil, and so given up the effort and the ghost forever, their
grave being marked by the butternut copse, chance-sown by bird or beast
in the saturated ground. In Indian legend the "sink" commemorated the
equally providential escape of a great tribe who, surrounded by enemies,
appealed to the Great Spirit for protection, and was promptly conveyed
by subterraneous passages to the banks of the Great River a hundred
miles away. Its outer edges were already invaded by the dust of the
plain, but within them ran cool recesses, a few openings, and the
ashes of some long-forgotten camp-fires. To-day its sombre shadows were
relieved by bright colored dresses, the jackets of the drivers of a
large sutler's wagon, whose white canvas head marked the entrance of the
copse, and all the paraphernalia of a picnic. It was a party gotten up
by the foreign guests to the ladies of the fort, prepared and arranged
by the active Lady Elfrida, assisted by the only gentleman of the party,
Peter Atherly, who, from his acquaintance with the locality, was allowed
to accompany them. The other gentlemen, who with a large party of
officers and soldiers were shooting in the vicinity, were sufficiently
near for protection. They would rejoin the ladies later.
"It does not seem in the least as if we were miles away from any town
or habitation," said Lady Runnybroke, complacently seating herself on a
stump, "and I shouldn't be surprised to see a church tower through those
trees. It's very like the hazel copse at Longworth, you know. Not at all
what I expected."
"For the matter of that neither are the Indians," said the Hon. Evelyn
Rayne. "Did you ever see such grotesque creatures in their cast-off
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