Blunt was an American by birth, but of Irish extraction, and to an
attentive ear there was a faint echo of the _brogue_ in his tone,
which seemed to have been handed down to him as a threadbare and
almost worn-out heirloom.

Poor Crusoe was singed almost naked. His wretched tail seemed little
better than a piece of wire filed off to a point, and he vented his
misery in piteous squeaks as the sympathetic Varley confided him
tenderly to the care of his mother. How Fan managed to cure him no one
can tell, but cure him she did, for, in the course of a few weeks,
Crusoe was as well and sleek and fat as ever.



CHAPTER II.


_A shooting-match and its consequences_--_New friends introduced to
the reader_--_Crusoe and his mother change masters_.

Shortly after the incident narrated in the last chapter the squatters
of the Mustang Valley lost their leader. Major Hope suddenly announced
his intention of quitting the settlement and returning to the
civilized world. Private matters, he said, required his presence
there--matters which he did not choose to speak of, but which would
prevent his returning again to reside among them. Go he must,
and, being a man of determination, go he did; but before going he
distributed all his goods and chattels among the settlers. He even
gave away his rifle, and Fan and Crusoe. These last, however, he