hoof for hoof; or for that matter, when a man is put
to the trouble of bargaining for both sides, he is a fool if he don't
pay himself something in the way of commission."

As the squatter made this declaration in a tone which was a little
excited by the humour of the moment, four or five of his lounging sons,
who had been leaning against the foot of the rock, came forward with the
indolent step so common to the family.

"I have been calling Ellen Wade, who is on the rock keeping the
look-out, to know if there is any thing to be seen," observed the eldest
of the young men; "and she shakes her head, for an answer. Ellen is
sparing of her words for a woman; and might be taught manners at least,
without spoiling her good looks."

Ishmael cast his eye upward to the place, where the offending, but
unconscious girl was holding her anxious watch. She was seated at the
edge of the uppermost crag, by the side of the little tent, and at least
two hundred feet above the level of the plain. Little else was to be
distinguished, at that distance, but the outline of her form, her fair
hair streaming in the gusts beyond her shoulders, and the steady and
seemingly unchangeable look that she had riveted on some remote point of
the prairie.

"What is it, Nell?" cried Ishmael, lifting his powerful voice a little
above the rushing of the element. "Have you got a glimpse of any thing
bigger than a burrowing barker?"

The lips of the attentive Ellen parted; she rose to the utmost height
her small stature admitted, seeming still to regard the unknown object;
but her voice, if she spoke at all, was not sufficiently loud to be
heard amid the wind.

"It ar' a fact that the child sees something more uncommon than a
buffaloe or a prairie dog!" continued Ishmael. "Why, Nell, girl, ar'
ye deaf? Nell, I say;--I hope it is an army of red-skins she has in
her eye; for I should relish the chance to pay them for their kindness,
under the favour of these logs and rocks!"

As the squatter accompanied his vaunt with corresponding gestures, and
directed his eyes to the circle of his equally confident sons while
speaking, he drew their gaze from Ellen to himself; but now, when
they turned together to note the succeeding movements of their female
sentinel, the place which had so lately been occupied by her form was
vacant.

"As I am a sinner," exclaimed Asa, usually one of the most phlegmatic of
the youths, "the girl is blown away by the wind!"

Som