"
"And the heathen," added the little Ruth, "he is young too as Mark,
though more used to the toil. It may be, mother, that he will never come
to us more!"
"That would grieve our venerable parent; for thou knowest, Ruth, that he
hath hopes of working on the mind of the boy, until his savage nature
shall yield to the secret power. But the sun is falling behind the hill,
and the evening is coming in cool as winter; go to the postern, and look
out upon the fields. I would know if there be any signs of thy father and
his party."
Though Ruth gave this mandate to her daughter, she did not the less
neglect to exercise her own faculties in the same grateful office. While
the children went, as they were ordered, to the outer gate, the matron
herself ascended to the lower apartment of the block, and, from its
different loops, she took a long and anxious survey of the limited
prospect. The shadows of the trees, that lined the western side of the
view, were already thrown far across the broad sheet of frozen snow, and
the sudden chill which succeeded the disappearance of the sun announced
the rapid approach of a night that promised to support the severe
character of the past day.
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