She hung her head abashed, but did not seem to
think it necessary to reply.
Ishmael, too sluggish to pursue the subject, or content with the
pointed allusion he had just made, rose from his seat on the rock, and
stretching his heavy frame, like a well-fed and fattened ox, he
announced his intention to sleep. Among a race who lived chiefly for
the indulgence of the natural wants, such a declaration could not fail
of meeting with sympathetic dispositions. One after another
disappeared, each seeking his or her rude dormitory; and, before many
minutes, Esther, who by this time had scolded the younger fry to
sleep, found herself, if we except the usual watchman below, in
solitary possession of the naked rock.
Whatever less valuable fruits had been produced in this uneducated
woman by her migratory habits, the great principle of female nature
was too deeply rooted ever to be entirely eradicated. Of a powerful,
not to say fierce temperament, her passions were violent and difficult
to be smothered. But, however she might and did abuse the accidental
prerogatives of her situation, love for her offspring, while it often
slumbered, could never be said to become extinct.
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