THE SURPRISE AND DISAPPOINTMENT--NAMING THE FAWN--SAM'S STORY--DEPRESSION AFTER EXCITEMENT--GREAT MISFORTUNE
Had there been nothing to excite them the company might have overslept themselves on the following morning. But shortly after daylight they were awaked by an incident that hurried them all out of bed. It was nothing less than hearing Frank exclaim, in a laughing, joyous tone, "O father, howdy! howdy! I am so glad you have come!"
The dull ears of the sleepers were caught by these welcome words, and all sprang to their feet.
"Father! Father! Is he here?" they asked. "Where, Frank? where!"
"Yonder," said he, sitting bolt-upright in bed, rubbing his half-opened eyes with one hand, and with the other pointing to a corner of the tent. "Isn't that father? I saw him there just now."
It was only a dream. Frank had been thinking more than usual of home during the day and night past, and it was natural that his visions of the night should be of the same character with his dreams of the day. He fancied that his father had found the lost boat, and having tied it at the landing, was coming to the tent. Poor fellow! he was sadly disappointed to learn that it was all a dream. The picture was so vivid, and his father looked so real, that for a moment he was perfectly confused. Mary tried to comfort him by saying, "Never mind, buddy; we will see him coming some of these days. But though father is not here, you remember that Sam is, and that he is going to tell us about home, as soon as he is able to talk. Come, let us get up, and see how he is." The history of the preceding day dawned slowly upon the mind of the bewildered child, and the sense of disappointment was gradually lost in the hope of hearing Sam's story.
The wounded man had spent a night of suffering. His leg pained him so intensely, that several times he had been on the point of calling for assistance; but hearing from every one that peculiar breathing which betokens deep sleep, and remembering that they had undergone immense fatigue, he stifled his groans, and bore his sufferings in silence.
While Robert and Harold were occupied with kind offices around the couch, Mary and Frank went to see after the fawn. Its neck was somewhat sore to the touch, but otherwise it appeared to be doing well. They gave it more water, hay and sassafras leaves. Frank offered it also a piece of bread; but wild deer are not used to cookery, and the fawn rejected it; though, after becoming thoroughly tamed, it became so fond of bread of every kind, that it would follow Frank all over the woods for a piece no bigger than his finger. "What shall we call her?" asked Frank.
"We will have a consultation about that," replied Mary, as she saw the others approaching. "Cousin Harold, what name would you give?"
"Snow or Lily, I think, would suit her colour very well," he answered.