Among this
number was Reuben Ring, who submitted to the loss of his habitation, as to
a merited punishment for the light-mindedness that had tempted him to
erect a dwelling at the utmost limits of the prescribed distance.
As the party of Dudley retreated, that sturdy yeoman stood at a window of
the chamber in which his prolific partner with her recent gift were safely
lodged, for in that moment of confusion, the husband was compelled to
discharge the double duty of sentinel and nurse. He had just fired his
piece and he had reason to think with success, on the enemies that pressed
too closely on the retiring party, and as he reloaded the gun, he turned a
melancholy eye on the pile of smoking embers, that now lay where his
humble but comfortable habitation had so lately stood.
"I fear me, Abundance," he said, shaking his head with a sigh, "that there
was error in the measurement between the meeting and the clearing. Some
misgivings of the lawfulness of stretching the chain across the hollows,
came over me at the time; but the pleasant knoll, where the dwelling
stood, was so healthful and commodious, that, if it were a sin, I hope it
is one that is forgiven! There doth not seem so much as the meanest of its
logs, that is not now melted into white ashes by the fire!"
"Raise me, husband," returned the wife, in the weak voice natural to her
feeble situation; "raise me with thine arm, that I may look upon the place
where my babes first saw the light.
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