"
"Don't mind him, don't mind him," cried Esther, observing that the
rest of his auditors listened with an attention which might proceed,
equally, from acquiescence in his proposal or ignorance of its
meaning. "There is a drug in every word he utters."
"Dr. Battius wishes to say," Ellen modestly interposed, "that as some
of us think Asa is in danger, and some think otherwise, the whole
family might pass an hour or two in looking for him."
"Does he?" interrupted the woman; "then Dr. Battius has more sense in
him than I believed! She is right, Ishmael; and what she says, shall
be done. I will shoulder a rifle myself; and woe betide the red-skin
that crosses my path! I have pulled a trigger before to-day; ay, and
heard an Indian yell, too, to my sorrow."
The spirit of Esther diffused itself, like the stimulus which attends
a war-cry, among her sons. They arose in a body, and declared their
determination to second so bold a resolution. Ishmael prudently
yielded to an impulse he could not resist, and in a few minutes the
woman appeared, shouldering her arms, prepared to lead forth, in
person, such of her descendants as chose to follow.
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