n in my dead husband's place. Thou
thinkest thyself so great a prize that I would clutch at thee whether
or no, I doubt not. I value thee not, save as a medicine for Manasseh,
if his mind get disturbed again, as I have noted signs of late.'

This, then, was the secret explanation of much that had alarmed her in
her cousin's manner: and if Lois had been a physician of modern times,
she might have traced somewhat of the same temperament in his sisters
as well--in Prudence's lack of natural feeling and impish delight in
mischief, in Faith's vehemence of unrequited love. But as yet Lois did
not know, any more than Faith, that the attachment of the latter to Mr.
Nolan was not merely unreturned, but even unperceived, by the young
minister.

He came, it is true--came often to the house, sat long with the family,
and watched them narrowly, but took no especial notice of Faith. Lois
perceived this, and grieved over it; Nattee perceived it, and was
indignant at it, long before Faith slowly acknowledged it to herself,
and went to Nattee the Indian woman, rather than to Lois her cousin,
for sympathy and counsel.

'He cares not for me,' said Faith. 'He cares more for Lois's little
finger than for my whole body,' the girl moaned out in the bitter pain
of jealousy.

'Hush thee, hush thee, prairie bird! How can he build a nest, when the
old bird has got all the moss and the feathers? Wait till the Indian
has found means to send the old bird flying far away.' This was the
mysterious comfort Nattee gave.

Grace Hickson took some kind of charge over Manasseh that relieved Lois
of much of her distress at his strange behaviour. Yet at times he
escaped from his mother's watchfulness, and in such opportunities he
would always seek Lois, entreating her, as of old, to marry
him--sometimes pleading his love for her, oftener speaking wildly of
his visions and the voices which he heard foretelling a terrible
futurity.

We have now to do with events which were taking place in Salem, beyond
the narrow circle of the Hickson family; but as they only concern us in
as far as they bore down in their consequences on the future of those
who formed part of it, I shall go over the narrative very briefly. The
town of Salem had lost by death, within a very short time preceding the
commencement of my story, nearly all its venerable men and leading
citizens--men of ripe wisdom and sound counsel. The people had hardly
yet recovered from the shock of their