Reuben Ring was the only individual who openly betrayed the whole degree
of the interest he took in the restoration of the lost female. The stout
yeoman arose, and, moving to the entranced Narra-mattah, he took the
infant into his large hands, and for a moment the honest borderer gazed
at the boy with a wistful and softened eye. Then raising the diminutive
face of the infant to his own expanded and bold features, he touched its
cheek with his lips, and returned the babe to its mother, who witnessed
the whole proceeding in some such tribulation as the startled wren
exhibits when the foot of the urchin is seen to draw too near the nest
of its young.
"Thou seest that the hand of the Narragansett hath been stayed," said
Content, when a deep silence had succeeded this little movement, and
speaking in a tone which betrayed hopes of victory.
"The ways of Providence are mysterious!" returned Meek; "wherein they
bring comfort to the heart, it is right that we exhibit gratitude; and
wherein they are charged with present affliction, it is meet to bow
with humbled spirits to their orderings.
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