“They are in the bureau drawer, there,” said his wife, “shall I get them for you?”
“No, I don’t want to see any more of the trash;” and, going into another room, he sat down to read a political speech. But it failed to interest him. The coming darkness, the looming up of heavy clouds in the distance, the stranger out in the pathless wilds, the abused privilege of doing good to—perhaps, after all—one of the followers of the Redeemer; the text on the card with its indirect reproof, were thoughts which crowded themselves upon his mind. For a moment he wished that he had given the stranger shelter; but prejudice had too long held sway to be thus easily set aside. He had taken a stand, and he would maintain it, let the consequences be what they would.
CHAPTER II.
MISFORTUNES.
OUR traveler, after leaving Mr. Steele’s, unfortunately took a road leading from the inhabited portion of country. Night was approaching, and the last sounds of human habitations had long since ceased to greet his ear; he still walked on, however, hoping that some dwelling would come into view.
The sun had set behind the great mountain of storm clouds in the west, and twilight was drawing a curtain of darkness around. The clouds rose higher and higher; the heavens began to be overspread with long masses of floating vapor, and the distant gleam of lightning could now be distinctly seen. He now encountered a steep hill in his march; his limbs could scarcely bear his body along, but he knew that he must go on. There were but few trees on the hill, and their absence enabled him to see his way more clearly in ascending, but the valley beyond seemed shrouded in midnight darkness.
These wild regions were infested with wolves and other ravenous beasts, and our hero being unarmed, his life became hourly more endangered. After struggling along under accumulating difficulties, in utter loneliness and discouragement he sat down on a log to rest. It was to him an hour of trial; and his patience almost failed him. But the remembrance of God’s promise, “Behold, I am with thee and will keep thee,” cheered him. A clap of thunder warned him of the approach of the storm, and aroused his enfeebled energies to their task. But where should he go? The darkness, if possible, had increased; not a ray of light remained, excepting when the electric fluid for a moment lit up the heavens with its lurid blaze only to leave it still darker. An effort to secure shelter must be made at once.
As he was anxiously hurrying on among the weeds and fallen timber, a huge rattlesnake that had coiled itself under some rubbish suddenly sounded its “death-rattle.” Finding that danger was threatening in the heavens above, and lurking on the earth beneath, he was on the point of sitting down and awaiting his fate, when, suddenly, a flash of lightning revealed an opening between the tall trees, and the hope that there might be some human habitation not far distant caused him to again renew his efforts.