“What serenity after the strife of last week!”
“It is, indeed, a contrast this night. Let us sit here awhile and enjoy its beauty,” said Merwin; and, assisting Millicent to a seat upon the trunk of a fallen tree, he placed himself at her feet.
“How strange it all seems! Here I am in the forest, as I was a week ago, yet under such different circumstances,—free from my enemies and surrounded by only friends.”
“And another week will change your surroundings entirely; and the new friends made now will, like the Indians, be present but in memory. You know to-morrow we are to leave here.”
“I can hardly realize it. Ah, Captain Merwin! can it be that I shall so soon leave Wigwam Hill, the scene of my trying life of captivity, behind me?”
“Yes; by to-morrow at this time, I trust, you will be far from this spot where you have suffered so much. This beautiful lake will always recall unpleasant associations to your mind, I fear, while to mine it will recall some of the pleasantest hours of my life.”
“No; I, too, shall have pleasant recollections of these shores. The memory of your noble kindness to me will not be effaced. But tell me, where do we go then?” Millicent asked, rather seriously.
“It cannot matter to you where I and my men go; but you I hope to take to your sister.”
“To Martha, Captain Merwin? Is my dear sister then alive? Is there no doubt of it?”
“None.”