No more words passed between them. Their eyes
met for an instant, and then both arose and walked in profound silence
towards the encampment.
The squatter found his children expecting his return in the usual
listless manner with which they awaited all coming events. The cattle
were already herded, and the horses in their gears, in readiness to
proceed, so soon as he should indicate that such was his pleasure. The
children were already in their proper vehicle, and, in short, nothing
delayed the departure but the absence of the parents of the wild
brood.
"Abner," said the father, with the deliberation with which all his
proceedings were characterised, "take the brother of your mother from
the wagon, and let him stand on the 'arth."
Abiram issued from his place of concealment, trembling, it is true,
but far from destitute of hopes, as to his final success in appeasing
the just resentment of his kinsman. After throwing a glance around
him, with the vain wish of finding a single countenance in which he
might detect a solitary gleam of sympathy, he endeavoured to smother
those apprehensions, that were by this time reviving in their original
violence, by forcing a sort of friendly communication between himself
and the squatter--
"The beasts are getting jaded, brother," he said, "and as we have made
so good a march already, is it not time to camp.
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