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Show A WESTEEN CHARACTER. 31 death, an' pretty soon so hot that I stopped at a spring an' drunk an' drunk till I staggered ' round like I had a load of whisky on. An' when night come on, I kept gettin' up an' layin' down first one place an' then another, an' then huntin' water an' tryin' to get into a house that was right afore me, an' yet I couldn't somehow locate it. All at once I come on Joe, an' I cried like a child, an' begged him to take me in an' give me a drink. It ' peared like Joe was scared of me, an' run, an' I run an' called to him all night thro' the woods. Then it come on to rain, an' I got down by a tree, an' it seemed like Joe was jist t'other side of the tree, an' wouldn't come an' help me. So I got up an' staggered on, an' all at once I was at myself, settin' at the foot of another tree, an' somebody was callin' thro' the woods for milk cows. And when the voice come near me I set down an' cried, for it made me think o' Mammy and Myra it was so soft an' sw r eet. Then a girl come up, and I tried to speak, but shivered an' shook that bad I couldn't say a word. But how pretty that little white Cherokee looked ! Stranger, you have no idee. No woman you ever see could ekal her." I was about to demur to this, when the fire blazed up brightly, and I glanced across the hearth at the " old woman;" and was it fancy? or did the lines in the poor, worn old face seem to fade away, and a trem-ulous softness steal into the dark eyes ? I suspended criticism, and after a brief reverie my host continued : " Well, I sunk down agin, an' the next I recollect I was in a cabin, an' an old conjurer was pow- wowing over me. She was the blackest, grizzliest old Cherokee I ever seed; an' as she muttered some heathen stuff, an' rattled a little bell, she sometimes went to the door and stroked her face and kissed her hand to the sun, an' somehow I got the idee she was the same as the pretty little girl that found me, an' the notion of the change made me cry agin. The next ten days I don't know much about, only they had a regular doctor once or twice ; an' all at once I woke one clear morning, an' there set the pretty little Cherokee, an' my head was all right agin. " But law, stranger, I was that weak ! They was white Cherokees that picked me up the man a Scotchman, married to a half- blood woman, and some of the best folks I ever struck. It was weeks be-, fore I could walk a quarter ; then I got strong pretty fast, and bimeby along came dad huntin' for me. An' that girl well, I reckon she spared nothin' that cabin could aiford to help me get well. She used to sing the Cherokee songs, and her mother would tell all about the travels and troubles of the tribe from the time they left the Yemas- |