dismal. Under these circumstances the progress of the wagons was
very slow. David was impatient. As he watched the sluggish turns of
the wheels, he thought that he could travel very much faster if he
should push forward alone, leaving the wagons behind him.

At length he became so impatient, thoughts of home having obtained
entire possession of his mind, that he informed Mr. Dunn of his
intention to press forward as fast as he could. His elder companions
deemed it very imprudent for such a mere child. thus alone, to
attempt to traverse the wilderness, and they said all they could to
dissuade him, but in vain. He therefore, early the next morning,
bade them farewell, and with light footsteps and a light heart
tripped forward, leaving them behind, and accomplishing nearly as
much in one day as the wagons could in two. We are not furnished
with any of the details of this wonderful journey of a solitary
child through a wilderness of one or two hundred miles. We know not
how he slept at night, or how he obtained food by day. He informs us
that he was at length overtaken by a drover, who had been to
Virginia with a herd of cattle, and was returning to Knoxville
riding one horse and leading another.

The man was amazed in meeting a mere child in such lonely wilds, and
upon hearing his story, his kind heart was touched. David was a
frail little fellow, whose weight would be no burden for a horse,
and the good man directed him to mount the animal which he led. The
boy had begun to be very tired. He was just approaching a turbid
stream, whose icy waters, reaching almost to his neck, he would have
had to wade but for this Providential assistance.

Travellers in the wilderness seldom trot their horses. On such a