On through the forest our friends went, rejoicing in their escape from the fiery furnace with hardly so much as a singe upon their garments.
The Yankee clung to his pack, which he had stuck to through thick and thin, and which he was at last bearing out triumphantly. Ruth bore the fatigue well, helped along as she was by the hand and strength of her lover, and in due time the nearest settlement was reached, and they were safe from any further dangers.
Sam Wilson did not return to his clearing, and so the cabin in the wilderness was not reërected.
He had experienced dangers enough from living apart from the body of the settlers, and was now content to abide with them. A piece of land was taken up close to them, and two cabins erected thereon. Not long after they were completed, Ned Tapley and Ruth were married and took up their abode in one of them, while the parents of the latter dwelt in the other.
Rushing Water neither of them saw again. Whether he was ever undeceived they had no means of knowing. Happy themselves, they were willing that he and Minora should be likewise.
Dick, the Death-Dealer, was ever a prized friend to them; and they were glad to have him take up his abode with them whenever he was not abroad upon his work in the forest. Many were the timely services he performed for all of his settlers, and he was looked upon as the benefactor of them all.
It may be some satisfaction to our readers to know that the Yankee made one trade with our friends. Ruth’s wedding-dress was purchased of him, and though he said that he was selling it so low for friendship’s sake that he was ruining himself, he was afterward heard to chuckle and declare that he had “made a darned handsome thing out of it,” as doubtless he had.
Whether he ever went back to New Hampshire is unknown; but whether he did, or remained in the West, there is one thing sure: he looked out for Number One on all occasions, and that he and his pack stuck together through thick and thin.
THE END.