the woman.

"Oh, Aunt Hannah, do not blame her! she was so good!" said this loyal
son. "I can bear reproach for myself, but I will not bear it for her!
Say anything you like to me, dear Aunt Hannah! but never say a word
against her!"

"But, poor boy! how will you bear the sure reproach of birth that you
are bound to hear from others? Ah, Ishmael, you must try to fortify your
mind, my dear, to bear much unjust shame in this world. Ishmael, the
brighter the sun shines the blacker the shadow falls. The greater your
success in the world, the bitterer will be this shame! See, my boy, it
was in the hour of your youthful triumph that this reproach was first
cast in your face! The envious are very mean, my boy. Ah, how will you
answer their cruel reproaches!"

"I will tell you, Aunt Hannah! Let them say what they like of me; I will
try to bear with them patiently; but if any man or boy utters one word
of reproach against my dear mother--" The boy ceased to speak, but his
face grew lived.

"Now, now, what would you do?" exclaimed Hannah, in alarm.

"Make him recant his words, or silence him forever!"

"Oh, Ishmael! Ishmael! you frighten me nearly to death! Good Heaven, men
are dreadful creatures! They never receive an injury but they must needs
think of slaying! Oh, how I wish you had been a girl! Since you were to
be, how I do wish you had been a girl! Boys are a dreadful trial and
terror to a lone woman! Oh, Ishmael! promise me you won't do anything
violent!" exclaimed Hannah, beside herself with terror.

"I cannot, Aunt Hannah! For I should be sure to break such a promise if
the occasion offered. Oh, Aunt Hannah! you don't know all my mother is
to me! You don't! You think because she died the very day that I was
born that I cannot know anything about her and cannot love her; but I
tell you, Aunt Hannah, I know her well! and I love her as much as if she
was still in the flesh. I have seen her in my dreams ever since I can
remember anything. Oh! often, when I was very small and you used to lock
me up alone in the hut, while you went away for all day to Baymouth, I
have been strangely soothed to sleep and then I have seen her in my
dreams!"

"Ishmael, you rave!"

"No, I don't; I will prove it to you, that I see my mother. Listen, now;
nobody ever described her to me; not even you; but I will tell you how
she looks--she is tall and slender; she has a very fair skin and very
long black hair, and nice slender black eyeb