His sons were not
long in arriving; for the cattle no sooner scented the food and water
than they quickened their pace, and then succeeded the usual bustle
and avocations of a halt.
The impression made by the scene of that morning was not so deep, or
lasting, on the children of Ishmael and Esther, as to induce them to
forget the wants of nature. But while the sons were searching among
their stores, for something substantial to appease their hunger, and
the younger fry were wrangling about their simple dishes, the parents
of the unnurtured family were differently employed.
When the squatter saw that all, even to the reviving Abiram, were busy
in administering to their appetites, he gave his downcast partner a
glance of his eye, and withdrew towards a distant roll of the land,
which bounded the view towards the east. The meeting of the pair, in
this naked spot, was like an interview held above the grave of their
murdered son. Ishmael signed to his wife to take a seat beside him on
a fragment of rock, and then followed a space, during which neither
seemed disposed to speak.
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