st,
from which she expected to see her husband emerge, she sat at the
door, with her child in her arms, watching, in vain, for his
appearance. As the evening waxed later, and her fears increased, she
sometimes imagined she saw strange figures and ferocious faces, with
eyes beaming wrath and vengeance, such as she had beheld in her dream,
moving about the dusky apartment. Ashamed of these fears, and knowing
that her husband, when he came home, would chide her for thus exposing
herself and her child to the evening dews, she breathed a short prayer
to Him who stilled the tempest, and entered the house. Her first care,
after placing her infant in his cradle, was, to light a candle, and
then, more reassured, she took the sacred book from which white men
gather their belief of the land of souls and of future happiness. That
book is the "charm," and the protecting "medicine" of the white men.
They believe that it guards them from evil, and guides them to good;
its pages are a direction in every difficulty--its promises a resource
in every trial. She read and prayed alternately, mingling the idea of
her husband, his safety and return, with every thought and wish, but
still he came not. She had no means of ascertaining the lapse of time,
except by the stars, as there was no moon; but she conjectured that it
must be past the hour of midnight. Again and again she went forth, and
examined with a searching glance every thing around, but nothing could
she see, except the dark forest in the distance, and, close around her
dwelling, the black stumps that stood like sentinels on guard--while
nothing was heard, save the soft murmur of the water, and, at times, a
low rustling, as the breeze stirred the leaves of the chesnut-tree, or
swept over the field of ripe wheat.

At length, as she stood at the corner of the cabin, beneath the shade
of the chesnut, of which I have before spoken, looking earnestly
towards the distant woods, she saw, or thought she saw, something
emerge from their shadow. Whatever it was, it vanished instantly. She
kept her eyes fixed on the spot. A bright starlight enabled her to
discern objects distinctly, even at a distance, especially when her
faculties were roused and stimulated, both by hope and fear. After
some time, she again and plainly saw a human figure. It rose from the
ground, looked and pointed towards her house, and then again
disappeared. She recollected her light. It could be seen from the
window, and