from your wishes, without fear or
favour. Would you leave us to go with this young man into the settled
countries, or will you tarry and share the little we have to give, but
which to you we give so freely?"

Thus called upon to decide, Ellen could no longer hesitate. The glance
of her eye was at first timid and furtive. But as the colour flushed her
features, and her breathing became quick and excited, it was apparent
that the native spirit of the girl was gaining the ascendency over the
bashfulness of sex.

"You took me a fatherless, impoverished, and friendless orphan," she
said, struggling to command her voice, "when others, who live in what
may be called affluence compared to your state, chose to forget me; and
may Heaven in its goodness bless you for it! The little I have done,
will never pay you for that one act of kindness. I like not your manner
of life; it is different from the ways of my childhood, and it is
different from my wishes; still, had you not led this sweet and
unoffending lady from her friends, I should never have quitted you,
until you yourself had said, Go, and the blessing of God go with you!'"

"The act was not wise, but it is repented of; and so far as it can
be done, in safety, it shall be repaired. Now, speak freely, will you
tarry, or will you go?"

"I have promised the lady," said Ellen, dropping her eyes again to the
earth, "not to leave her; and after she has received so much wrong from
our hands, she may have a right to claim that I keep my word."

"Take the cords from the young man," said Ishmael. When the order was
obeyed, he motioned for all his sons to advance, and he placed them in
a row before the eyes of Ellen. "Now let there be no trifling, but open
your heart. Here ar' all I have to offer, besides a hearty welcome."

The distressed girl turned her abashed look from the countenance of one
of the young men to that of another, until her eye met the troubled and
working features of Paul. Then nature got the better of forms. She threw
herself into the arms of the bee-hunter, and sufficiently proclaimed her
choice by sobbing aloud. Ishmael signed to his sons to fall back, and
evidently mortified, though perhaps not disappointed by the result, he
no longer hesitated.

"Take her," he said, "and deal honestly and kindly by her. The girl has
that in her which should make her welcome, in any man's house, and I
should be loth to hear she ever came to harm. And now I have settled
w