Nature was then stirring
powerfully within him, and the muscles of his stern visage began to
work perceptibly. His children fastened their eyes on his, as if to
seek a direction to the strange emotions which were moving their own
heavy natures, when the struggle in the bosom of the squatter suddenly
ceased, and, taking his wife by the arm, he raised her to her feet as
if she had been an infant, saying, in a voice that was perfectly
steady, though a nice observer would have discovered that it was
kinder than usual--
"Eester, we have now done all that man and woman can do. We raised the
boy, and made him such as few others were like, on the frontiers of
America; and we have given him a grave. Let us go our way."
The woman turned her eyes slowly from the fresh earth, and laying her
hands on the shoulders of her husband, stood, looking him anxiously in
the eyes.
"Ishmael! Ishmael!" she said, "you parted from the boy in your wrath!"
"May the Lord pardon his sins freely as I have forgiven his worst
misdeeds!" calmly returned the squatter: "woman, go you back to the
rock and read your Bible; a chapter in that book always does you good.
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