for others of equal,
if not of more importance, he came to the determination of taking, to a
certain extent, Sarah into his confidence, and thus making not only her
quickness and activity, but her impetuosity and resentments, useful to
his designs. It was pretty late that night, when he reached home; and,
as he had devoted the only portion of his time that remained between
his arrival and bed-time, to a description of the unsettled state of the
country, occasioned by what were properly called the Famine Outrages,
that were then beginning to take place, he made no allusion to anything
connected with his projects, to either Nelly or his daughter, the
latter of whom, by the way, had been out during the greater part of the
evening. The next morning, however, he asked her to take a short stroll
with him along the river, which she did; and both returned, after having
had at least an hour's conversation--Sarah, with a flushed cheek and
indignant eye, and her father, with his brow darkened, and his voice
quivering from suppressed resentment; so that, so far as observation
went, their interview and communication had not been very agreeable on
either side. After breakfast, Sarah put on her cloak and bonnet, and was
about to go out, when her father said--

"Pray, ma'am, where are you goin' now?"

"It doesn't signify," she replied; "but at all events you needn't ax me,
for I won't tell you."

"What kind of answer is that to give me? Do you forget that I'm your
father?"

"I wish I could; for indeed I am sorry you are."

"Oh, you know," observed Nelly, "she was always a dutiful girl--always
a quiet good crathur. Why, you onbiddable sthrap, what kind o' an answer
is that to give to your father?"

Ever since their stroll that morning, Sarah's eyes had been turned from
time to time upon her step-mother with flash after flash of burning
indignation, and now that she addressed her, she said--

"Woman, you don't know how I scorn you! Oh, you mane an' wicked wretch,
had you no pride during all your life! It's but a short time you an'
I will be undher the same roof together--an' so far as I am consarned,
I'll not stoop ever to bandy abuse or ill tongue with you again. I know
only one other person that is worse an' meaner still than you are--an'
there, I am sorry to say, he stands in the shape of my father."

She walked out of the cabin with a flushed check, and a step that was
full of disdain, and a kind of natural pride that might