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THE PIONEERS.
257

—"all gone all gone! I have no son but the Young Eagle, and he has the blood of a white man."

"Tell me, John," said Elizabeth, willing to draw his thoughts to other subjects, and at the same time yielding to her own secret interest in the youth; "who is this Mr. Edwards? why are you so fond of him, and whence does he come?"

The Indian started at the question, which evidently recalled his recollection to the earth, and, taking her hand, he drew Miss Temple to a seat beside him, and pointed to the country beneath them, before he answered.

"See, daughter," he said, directing her looks towards the north; "as far as your young eyes can see, was the land of his"——

But immense volumes of smoke at that moment rolled over their heads, and whirling in the eddies formed by the mountains, interposed a barrier to their sight, while he was speaking. Startled by the circumstance, Miss Temple sprung on her feet, and turning her eyes toward the summit of the mountain, she beheld it covered by a similar canopy, while a roaring sound was heard in the forest above her, like the rushing of furious winds.

"What means it, John!" she exclaimed; "we are enveloped in smoke, and I feel a heat like the glow of a furnace."

Before the Indian could reply, a voice was heard, crying in the woods, with a painful anxiety—

"John! where are you, old Mohegan! the woods are on fire, and you have but a few minutes for escape."

The chief put his hand before his mouth, and making it play on his lips, produced the kind