hem skulking devils the Tetons stole, was the
biggest coward among us all, and after her came your drivelling Doctor.
Ah! Ishmael, you rarely attempt a regular trade but you come out the
loser; and this man, I reckon, is the hardest bargain among them all!
Would you think it, the fellow ordered me a blister around my mouth,
because I complained of a pain in the foot?"

"It is a pity, Eester," the husband coolly answered, "that you did not
take it; I reckon it would have done considerable good. But, boys, if it
should turn out as Ahiram thinks, that there are Indians near us, we may
have to scamper up the rock, and lose our suppers after all; therefore
we will make sure of the game, and talk over the performances of the
Doctor when we have nothing better to do."

The hint was taken; and in a few minutes, the exposed situation in which
the family was collected, was exchanged for the more secure elevation
of the rock. Here Esther busied herself, working and scolding with equal
industry, until the repast was prepared; when she summoned her husband
to his meal in a voice as sonorous as that with which the Imam reminds
the Faithful of a more important duty.

When each had assumed his proper and customary place around the smoking
viands, the squatter set the example by beginning to partake of a
delicious venison steak, prepared like the hump of the bison, with a
skill that rather increased than concealed its natural properties. A
painter would gladly have seized the moment, to transfer the wild and
characteristic scene to the canvass.

The reader will remember that the citadel of Ishmael stood insulated,
lofty, ragged, and nearly inaccessible. A bright flashing fire that was
burning on the centre of its summit, and around which the busy group
was clustered, lent it the appearance of some tall Pharos placed in the
centre of the deserts, to light such adventurers as wandered through
their broad wastes. The flashing flame gleamed from one sun-burnt
countenance to another, exhibiting every variety of expression, from the
juvenile simplicity of the children, mingled as it was with a shade of
the wildness peculiar to their semi-barbarous lives, to the dull and
immovable apathy that dwelt on the features of the squatter, when
unexcited. Occasionally a gust of wind would fan the embers; and, as
a brighter light shot upwards, the little solitary tent was seen as it
were suspended in the gloom of the upper air. All beyond was envelop