"
"I fear none of white blood, nor of Christian parentage: the murderous
heathen is in our fields."
"Thou dreamest, Ruth!"
"'Tis not a dream. I have seen the glowing eye-balls of a savage. Sleep
was little like to come over me, when set upon a watch like this. I
thought me that the errand was of unknown character, and that our father
was exceedingly aged, and that perchance his senses might be duped, and
how an obedient son ought not to be exposed.--Thou knowest, Heathcote,
that I could not look upon the danger of my children's father with
indifference, and I followed to the nut-tree hillock."
"To the nut-tree! It was not prudent in thee--but the postern?"
"It was open; for were the key turned, who was there to admit us quickly,
had haste been needed?" returned Ruth, momentarily averting her face to
conceal the flush excited by conscious delinquency. "Though I failed in
caution, 'twas for thy safety, Heathcote: But on that hillock, and in the
hollow left by a fallen tree, lies concealed a heathen!"
"I passed the nut-wood in going to the shambles of our strange butcher,
and I drew the rein to give breath to the nag near it, as we returned with
the burthen.
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