spar's face was losing its premature thoughtfulness and
rounding to a look more suited to his years.

"Now, I'll dance you a sailor's hornpipe, and then I must go out and
milk. If ma'd been home, it would have been finished long ago. But
when the cat's away the mice will play, you know; so here goes."

Unfortunately, at that very moment the "cat" to whom he referred,
Mercy, in fact, approached the cabin from a direction which even
Wahneenah did not observe, and opened a rear door plump upon this
unprecedented scene.

Abel stopped short in his jig, one foot still uplifted and his fiddle
bow half drawn, while the Sun Maid was yet sweeping her most graceful
curtsey; and even the serious Gaspar had left his seat to prance about
the room to the notes of Abel's music.

Mercy also remained transfixed, utterly dumfounded, and doubting the
evidence of her own senses; but after a moment becoming able to
exclaim:

"So! This is how lonesome you be when I leave you, is it?"

CHAPTER XII.

AFTER FOUR YEARS.

Despite a really warm and hospitable heart, it was not pleasant for
Mercy Smith to find that her submissive husband had taken upon himself
to keep open house in this fashion for all who chose to call; and, as
she often expressed it, the settler's wife "hated an Indian on sight."

Upon her unexpected entrance, there had ensued a brief silence; then
the two tongues which were accustomed to wag so nimbly took up their
familiar task and a battle of words followed. Its climax came rather
suddenly, and was not anticipated by the housewife who declared with
great decision:

"I say the children may stay for a spell, till we can find a way to
dispose of 'em. The boy's big enough to earn his keep, if he ain't too
lazy. Male creatur's mostly are. An' the girl's no great harm as I
see, 'nless she's too pretty to be wholesome. But that red-face goes,
or I do. There ain't no room in this cabin for me an' a squaw to one
time. You can take your druther. She goes or I do"; and she glanced
with animosity toward Wahneenah, who, when hearing the fresh voice
added to the other three, had come promptly upon Mercy's return to
take her stand just within the entrance. There she had remained ever
since, silent, watchful, and quite as full of distrust concerning
Mercy as Mercy could possibly have been toward herself.

"Well," said Abel, slowly, and there was a new note in his voice which
aroused and riveted his wife's attention. "Well