"Poor thing!" said Jane, "it is almost dead: see how parched its mouth is? Take it to the spring and let it drink, and we will collect something for it to eat. What a pretty thing the kid is, and so very tame. You will not kill it, will you?"
"Not unless necessity compels us to. If we can get a little strength in this goat, I think, myself, she will be of service to us. Now for supper, for this mountain air gives me a voracious appetite."
"And after supper, uncle, we had better build a bough-house, for last night the dew fell heavy and cold. I think the summer must be over and September already here."
"The young brave is right; the harvest moon is yonder a crescent. When it is full, comes the harvest feast; and, then, unless Whirlwind returns, another will be chief in his place."
"If we are not there then, we have this consolation, others have been in as bad situations as we are."
"But, uncle, supposing we are still wandering around the forest when the snows begin to fall?" said Jane.
"Why, then we must make the best of it we can."
"That is, lay down and freeze."
"Does the red man lay down and die, when the snows fall?" asked the chief. "If we cannot find our homes, we must make a new one. Then we shall be content again. The antelope shall sit in her lodge happy as the singing bird, while her brothers bring her venison, fish, and the choicest fruits that grow."
The next morning they were again in motion, making direct for the lofty peaks before them, expecting to find a pass, and hoping when on the other side to find a country with which they were familiar. For turn it as they could, they arrived at the same conclusion at last, that they ought to travel towards the northeast, a course they believed they constantly kept. But they were mistaken in supposing the cave went through the Wahsatch mountain; for, instead, it went through a spur of it, leaving the principal range on the east, instead of the west as they supposed. And now another spur lay between them and the principal range, rising in lofty peaks, beyond which was an extensive level plain many miles in extent, before the principal range could be reached. The reason they were so deceived in the locality was, that they had never been on the western side of the Wahsatch mountains, until carried prisoners there; and, supposing the outlet of the cavern was on the eastern side, they boldly pushed ahead. Had they known of these two spurs—(the one the cavern conducted them through, and the one that lay before them,) they would have known precisely where they were. But, as the savages had gone round them by crossing the mountains a hundred miles below, when they took them prisoners to their village, they had no means of knowing it.