A freezing wind, which had brought with it the
cold airs of the great lakes, and which had even triumphed over the more
natural influence of an April sun, had however fallen, leaving a
temperature not unlike that which dwells in the milder seasons of the year
among the glaciers of the upper Alps.
Ruth was too long accustomed to such forest scenes, and to such a
"lingering of winter in the lap of May," to feel, on their account, any
additional uneasiness. But the hour had now arrived when she had reason to
look for the return of the hunters. With the expectation of seeing their
forms issuing from the forest, came the anxiety which is an unavoidable
attendant of disappointment. The shadows continued to deepen in the
valley, until the gloom thickened to the darkness of night, without
bringing any tidings from those without.
When a delay, which was unusual in the members of a family circumstanced
like that of the Wish-Ton-Wish, came to be coupled with various little
observations that had been made during the day, it was thought that
reasons for alarm were beginning, at each instant, to grow more plausible.
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