"Haven't you got over that yet?"
"You can laugh if you like, Miss. I only hope my turn'll come next. Howsumever, I jist stepped up to say that you needn't consarn your little head 'bout Injuns. We're too strong for the cowardly thieves now; they won't ventur'. Jist you take the soundest kind of a sleep, so's to feel bright to-morrer."
"I shall sleep like a top, Joe, as long as you're on guard."
"You can jist do that very thing, Miss, as safe as a baby in a cradle. Well, good-night. The Lord bless and keep you, and presarve ye from the bite of a rattlesnake!"
This was Joe's favorite parting benediction, bestowed only on his friends—hardly an idle prayer, either, in that snake infested country.
That night in camp was one of safety and profound repose. No accident marred the deep sleep of the emigrants. Once during the night, at that approach to morning when slumber is most enthralling, Elizabeth stirred in her dreams, half starting from her sleep with a smothered cry. She was dreaming that a rattlesnake had stung her hand.
The first thing she noticed as she left the wagon in the morning, to bathe her face and hands in the stream, was that her ring was gone!
A cry of grief and surprise made the loss known to her aunt, whose consternation was almost equal to her own.
"It was ruther loose for you; may be it's slipped from your finger while you was to work, Lizzie!"
"No, aunt; I am sure I had it on when I went to sleep. I shut my hand on it as I always do. Somebody stole it from me in the night. It half aroused me, but not enough to realize what it was."