“What were they worth?” demanded Glenn, laughing.

“I was offered two dollars a-piece for ’em as we came through Indiana,” replied Sneak.

“Here’s the money,” said Glenn, handing him the amount.  After receiving the cash, Sneak turned away perfectly satisfied, and seemed not to bestow another thought upon his puppies.

This affair had hardly been settled before Joe made his appearance on Pete.  He rode slowly along down the path, as dolefully as ever man approached the graveyard.  As he drew near, all eyes were fixed upon him.  Never were any one’s features so much disfigured.  His nose was as large as a hen’s egg, and as purple as a plum.  Still it was not much disproportioned to the rest of his swollen face; and the whole resembled the unearthly phiz of the most bloated gnome that watched over the slumbers of Rip Van Winkle.

CHAPTER III.

Glenn’s castle—­Mary—­Books—­A hunt—­Joe and Pete—­A tumble—­An opossum—­A shot—­Another tumble—­A doe—­The return—­They set out again—­A mound—­A buffalo—­An encounter—­Night—­Terrific spectacle—­Escape—­Boone—­Sneak—­Indians.

Some weeks had passed since the bear hunt.  The emigrants had crossed the river, and selected their future homes in the groves that bordered the prairie, some miles distant from the ferry.  Glenn, when landed on the south side of the Missouri, took up his abode for a short time with Jasper Roughgrove, the ferryman, while some half dozen men, whose services his gold secured, were building him a novel habitation.  And the location was as singular as the construction of his house.  It was on a peak that jutted over the river, some three hundred feet high, whence he had a view eight or ten miles down the stream, and across the opposite bottom-land to the hills mentioned in the preceding chapter.  The view was obstructed above by a sudden bend of the stream; but on the south, the level prairie ran out as far as the eye could reach, interrupted only by the young groves that were interspersed at intervals.  His house, constructed of heavy stones, was about fifteen feet square, and not more than ten in height.  The floor was formed of hewn timbers, the walls covered with a rough coat of lime, and the roof made of heavy boards.  However uncouth this abode appeared to the eye of Glenn, yet he had followed the instructions of Boone, (to whom he had fully disclosed his plan, and repeated his odd resolution,) and reared a tenement not only capable of resisting the wintry winds that were to howl around it, but sufficiently firm to withstand the attacks of any foe, whether the wild beast of the forest or the prowling Indian.  The door was very narrow and low, being made of a solid rock full six inches in thickness, which required the strength of a man to turn on its hinges, even when the ponderous bolt on the inside was unfastened.  There was a small square window on each side containing a single pane