Part 16 (2/2)

'O God of Bethel, by whose hand Thy children still are fed; Who through this weary wilderness Hath all our fathers led'

He gave it out in the old Scotch way, two lines at a time, and to the tune 'Martyrdom'

It was surely appropriate to our position and our surroundings, especially that beautiful verse--

'Oh, spread Thy covering wings around, Till all our wanderings cease, And at our Father's loved abode Our souls arrive in peace'

We now prepared for rest The sentries were set, and in a short time all was peace and silence within our caht out by Moncrieff'sprobably disturbed by the cry of so fox

So, wrapped in our guanaco robes--the benefit of which we felt now--my brothers and I slept sweetly and deeply till the sun once ain

Thus were our days spent on the road, thus our evenings, and eke our nights And at the end of some days ere still safe and sound, and happy No one sick in the ca to travel already

So far, hardly anything had happened to break the even tenour of our journey Our progress, however, with so oods and chattels, and over such roads, was necessarily slow; yet we never envied the lu past us

We saw many herds of wild horses Some of these, led by beautiful stallions, came quite close to us They appeared to pity our horses and mules, condemned to the shafts and harness, and compelled to work their weary lives away day after day Our beasts were slaves They were free--free as the breezes that blew over the pa over the plains We had seen several ostriches, and my brothers and I had enjoyed a wild ride or two after them Once we encountered a puma, and oncean ar specientleave us much time for study, however Probably the creature had been asleep as we rounded the corner of a gravel bank, but in one er Nextcloud of dust and sand; lo! the arone to the Antipodes, or somewhere in that direction--buried alive Probably the speed hich an armadillo--there are several different species in the Silver West--disappears at the scent of any one belonging to the _genus homo_, is caused by the decided objection he has to be served up as a side-dish

He is excellent eating--tender as a chicken, juicy as a sucking-pig, but the honour of being roasted whole and garnished is one he does not crave

Riding on ahead one day--I had soon got tired of the , and preferred the saddle--at a bend of the road I came suddenly upon two horse on a patch of sward by the roadside Their horses stood near Both sprang up as I appeared, and quick as lightning their hands sought the handles of the ugly knives that depended in sheaths froirdles At this moment there was a look in the swarthy face of each that I can only describe as diabolical Hatred, ferocity, and cunning were colance; but it vanished in ahumility

'The Gaucho malo,' I said to myself as soon as I saw them Their horses were there the nobler animals Bitted, bridled, and saddled, the latter were in the e hillock of skins and rags; but rifles were slung alongside, to say nothing of bolas and lasso The dress of the arb

Shawls round the loins, tucked up between their legs and fastened with a girdle, did duty as breeches; their feet were encased in _potro_ boots, made of the hock-skin of horses, while over their half-naked shoulders hung ponchos of skin, not without a certain a else as well as his rifle was lashed to the saddle of one of these desert gipsies, and being new to the country, I could not help wondering at this--nauitar in a case of skin

With sht, while the other unslung the instruan to tune it The caravan must have been fully two miles behind me, so that to some extent I was at the mercy of these Gauchos, had they n, however

Having neighed in recognition of the other horses,stood as still as a statue; while, with my eyes upon the men and my hand within easy distance ofwhile the other played, and Ihad a certain fascination about it, and only the thought that I was far fro it I knew, as if by instinct, however, that the very fingers that were eliciting those sweet sad tones were itching to clutch my throat, and that the voice that thrilled er yell, hichupon their human prey

On the whole I felt relieved when the ruon wheels fell once more on my ears I rode back to meet my people, and presently a halt was made for the midday feed

If aunt desired to feast her eyes on the Gauchoto her, and went through a kind of wild dance for her especial delectation

'What rouards they are!' was the reriht the cland[4] whistles,' he said in his broadest, canniest accents

These Gauchos were hunting, they told Moncrieff Had they seen any Indians about? No, no, not an Indian The Indians were far, far south

Aunt gave thearments, food, and money; and, with many bows and salaams, they mounted their steeds and went off like the wind

I noticed that throughout the remainder of the day Moncrieff was unusually silent, and appeared to wish to be alone Towards evening he beckoned to ood bit of caround'