s. I dare
say, Ro, you know how it is with the gentle sex, when they make up their
minds?"

"My girls are all good girls, and have given me very little trouble,"
answered my uncle, complacently.

"Yes, I dare say that may be true. You have only been absent from home
five years, this trip."

"An attentive guardian, notwithstanding, since I left you as a
substitute. Has my mother written to you since her arrival among the
hosts of the Philistines?"

"She has, indeed, Littlepage," answered Dunning, gravely; "I have heard
from her three times, for she writes to urge my not appearing on the
estate. I did intend to pay her a visit; but she tells me that it might
lead to a violent scene, and can do no good. As the rents will not be
due until autumn, and Master Hugh is now of age and was to be here to
look after his own affairs, I have seen no motive for incurring the risk
of the tarring and feathering. We American lawyers, young gentleman,
wear no wigs."

"Does my mother write herself, or employ another?" inquired my uncle,
with interest.

"She honours me with her own hand. Your mother writes much better than
you do yourself, Roger."

"That is owing to her once having carried chain, as she would say
herself. Has Martha written to you?"

"Of course. Sweet little Patty and I are bosom friends, as you know."

"And does she say anything of the Indian and the negro?"

"Jaaf and Susquesus? To be sure she does. Both are living still, and
both are well. I saw them myself, and even ate of their venison, so
lately as last winter."

"Those old fellows must have each lived a great deal more than his
century, Jack. They were with my grandfather in the old French war, as
active, useful men--older, then, than _my_ grandfather!"

"Ay! a nigger or a redskin, before all others, for holding on to life,
when they have been temperate. Let me see--that expedition of
Abercrombie's was about eighty years since; why, these fellows must be
well turned of their hundred, though Jaap is rather the oldest, judging
from appearances."

"I believe no one knows the age of either. A hundred each has been
thought, now, for many years. Susquesus was surprisingly active, too,
when I last saw him--like a healthy man of eighty."

"He has failed of late, though he actually shot a deer, as I told you,
last winter. Both the old fellows stray down to the Nest, Martha writes
me; and the Indian is highly scandalized at the miserable imitations of
his r