no wrong, seemed to irritate Manasseh past endurance. He
would get up from his reading, his constant employment when at home,
and walk angrily about the room after Lois had said anything of this
kind, muttering to himself; and once he had even stopped before her,
and in a passionate tone bade her not talk so like a fool. Now this was
very different to his mother's sarcastic, contemptuous way of treating
all poor Lois's little loyal speeches. Grace would lead her on--at
least she did at first, till experience made Lois wiser--to express her
thoughts on such subjects, till, just when the girl's heart was
opening, her aunt would turn round upon her with some bitter sneer that
roused all the evil feelings in Lois's disposition by its sting. Now
Manasseh seemed, through all his anger, to be so really grieved by what
he considered her error, that he went much nearer to convincing her
that there might be two sides to a question. Only this was a view, that
it appeared like treachery to her dead father's memory to entertain.

Somehow, Lois felt instinctively that Manasseh was really friendly
towards her. He was little in the house; there was farming, and some
kind of mercantile business to be transacted by him, as real head of
the house; and as the season drew on, he went shooting and hunting in
the surrounding forests, with a daring which caused his mother to warn
and reprove him in private, although to the neighbours she boasted
largely of her son's courage and disregard of danger. Lois did not
often walk out for the mere sake of walking, there was generally some
household errand to be transacted when any of the women of the family
went abroad; but once or twice she had caught glimpses of the dreary,
dark wood, hemming in the cleared land on all sides,--the great wood
with its perpetual movement of branch and bough, and its solemn wail,
that came into the very streets of Salem when certain winds blew,
bearing the sound of the pine-trees clear upon the ears that had
leisure to listen. And from all accounts, this old forest, girdling
round the settlement, was full of dreaded and mysterious beasts, and
still more to be dreaded Indians, stealing in and out among the
shadows, intent on bloody schemes against the Christian people;
panther-streaked, shaven Indians, in league by their own confession, as
well as by the popular belief, with evil powers.

Nattee, the old Indian servant, would occasionally make Lois's blood
run cold as s