ix him, so he
won't want to do it agin right immediately, I reckon."

Thus muttering to himself, Isaac drew near the front gate, against
which, within the pallisades, the stranger in question was leaning,
with his hat pressed down over his forehead, as though he desired
concealment. His habiliments, after the fashion of the day, were
originally of a superior quality to those generally worn on the
frontiers, but soiled and torn in several places, as from the wear and
tear of a long, fatiguing journey. His features, what portion of them
could be seen under his hat, were pale and haggard, denoting one who had
experienced many and severe vicissitudes. As Isaac approached, he raised
his eyes from the ground, turned them full upon him, and then, taking a
step forward, said, in a voice tremulous with emotion:

"Thank God! Isaac Younker, I am able to behold you once again."

As a distinct view of his features fell upon the curious gaze of the
latter, and his voice sounded in his ear, Isaac paused for a moment, as
one stupefied with amazement; the next, he staggered back a pace or two,
dropped his hands upon his knees, in a stooping posture, as if to peer
more closely into the face of the stranger; and then bounding from the
earth, he uttered a wild yell of delight, threw his hat upon the ground
in a transport of joy, and rushed into the extended arms of Algernon
Reynolds, where he wept like a child upon his neck, neither of them able
to utter a syllable for something like a minute.

"The Lord be praised!" were the first articulate words of Isaac, in a
voice choked with emotion. "God bless you! Mr. Reynolds;" and again the
tears of joy fell fast and long. "Is it you?" resumed he, again starting
back and gazing wildly upon the other, as if fearful of some mistake.
"Yes! yes! it's you--there's no mistaking that thar face--the dead's
come to life again, for sartin;" and once more he sprung upon the
other's neck, with all the apparent delight of a mother meeting with a
lost child.

"Yes, yes, Isaac, thank God! it is myself you really behold--one who
never expected to see you again in this world," rejoined Algernon,
affected himself to tears, by the noble, heart-touching, affectionate
manner of his companion. "But--but Isaac--our friends here--are
they--all--all well, Isaac?" This was said in a voice, which, in spite
of the speaker's efforts to be calm, trembled from anxiety and
apprehension.

"Why," answered Isaac, in a somew