man," retorted his wife; "be saving of your
breath; for you may have to call long enough for the boy before he will
answer!"

"It ar' a fact, that some men be so womanish, as to let the young master
the old! But, you, old Esther, should know better than to think such
will ever be the nature of things in the family of Ishmael Bush."

"Ah! you are a hectorer with the boys, when need calls! I know it well,
Ishmael; and one of your sons have you driven from you, by your temper;
and that, too, at a time when he is most wanted."

"Father," said Abner, whose sluggish nature had gradually been
stimulating itself to the exertion of taking so bold a stand, "the boys
and I have pretty generally concluded to go out on the search of Asa. We
are disagreeable about his camping on the prairie, instead of coming in
to his own bed, as we all know he would like to do."

"Pshaw!" muttered Abiram; "the boy has killed a buck; or perhaps a
buffaloe; and he is sleeping by the carcass to keep off the wolves, till
day; we shall soon see him, or hear him bawling for help to bring in his
load."

"'Tis little help that a son of mine will call for, to shoulder a buck
or to quarter your wild-beef," returned the mother. "And you, Abiram, to
say so uncertain a thing! you, who said yourself that the red-skins had
been prowling around this place, no later than the yesterday--"

"I!" exclaimed her brother, hastily, as if anxious to retract an error;
"I said it then, and I say it now and so you will find it to be. The
Tetons are in our neighbourhood, and happy will it prove for the boy if
he is well shut of them."

"It seems to me," said Dr. Battius, speaking with the sort of
deliberation and dignity one is apt to use after having thoroughly
ripened his opinions by sufficient reflection,--"it seems to me, a man
but little skilled in the signs and tokens of Indian warfare, especially
as practised in these remote plains, but one, who I may say without
vanity has some insight into the mysteries of nature,--it seems, then,
to me, thus humbly qualified, that when doubts exist in a matter of
moment, it would always be the wisest course to appease them."

"No more of your doctoring for me!" cried the grum Esther; "no more of
your quiddities in a healthy family, say I! Here was I doing well, only
a little out of sorts with over instructing the young, and you dos'd
me with a drug that hangs about my tongue, like a pound weight on a
humming-bird's wing!"