He dipped his hat in the lake and sprinkled water in his wife's face.
She soon recovered and, a few minutes afterward, the happy party
walked up to the house, Mrs. Welch being assisted by her husband and
Pearson. The two young ones were soon seated at a table, ravenously
devouring food, and, when their hunger was satisfied, they related
the story of their adventures, the whole of the garrison being
gathered round to listen. After relating what had taken place up to
the time of their hiding the canoe, Harold went on:

"We walked about a quarter of a mile until we came to a large clump
of underwood. We crept in there, taking great pains not to break a
twig or disturb a leaf. The ground was, fortunately, very dry, and I
could see that our footprints had not left the smallest marks. There
we have lain hid ever since. We had the fish and the berries, and,
fortunately, the fruit was ripe and juicy and quenched our thirst
well enough, and we could, sometimes, hear the firing by day, and
always at night. On the day we took refuge we heard the voices of the
Indians down toward the lake quite plainly, but we have heard nothing
of them since. Last night we heard the firing up to the middle of the
night, and then it suddenly stopped. To-day I crept out and went down
to the lake to listen; but it seemed that everything was still. Nelly
was in a terrible way, and was afraid that the house had been taken
by the Indians, but I told her that could not be, for that there
would certainly have been a tremendous lot of firing at last, whereas
it stopped, after a few shots, just as it had been going on so long.
Our provisions were all gone and Nelly was getting very bad for want
of water. I, of course, got a drink at the lake this morning. So we
agreed that, if everything was still again to-night, we would go back
to the place where we had hidden the canoe, launch it, and paddle