out my engagement, and get
their consent to our marriage.'

"He shook his head. But feeling that it had been cowardly in me not to
have mentioned the subject before, whatever the result might have
been, in a few words I frankly, and with a composure that surprised
myself, told them the whole story. My father was a quick-tempered,
imperious man, and my mother lived only for this world: the result
you can easily imagine. But I felt that my duty was plain; and we were
quietly married. Having a little money of my own, joining it with what
your father had by him, we started towards the setting sun. But what
was that?" said Mrs. Jones, stopping in her recital, as a strange
sound fell upon her ear.

It was a long, fiendish yell, swelling upon the still night air over
the unbroken solitudes of the prairie; it was most appalling. Tom and
his mother hastened to the window; they saw a noble buck, his antlers
held aloft, flying with his utmost speed, pursued by two dark-looking
objects, that gained rapidly on him.

"It's the gray wolf," said Tom, "chasing a deer. How I wish I had a
rifle! I could bring one of them down easy as not,"--as they dashed
by, with short, quick yells, following their prey into the woods that
skirted the river.

"I hope the poor creature will escape," said Mrs. Jones, with a sigh;
and she resumed her narrative. "I was not long in seeing, on our
journey out, that a dreadful change had been wrought in your father by
his business troubles. It had given him an unconquerable disgust of
society, which he has not yet outgrown, making him uneasy and restless
wherever he has been; and this, Tom, is the secret of his wandering
life; and this is why I never feel that I can complain at any of the
changes in our hard, unsettled career as a family."

Tom, who had listened absorbed to this before unread chapter in the
family history, was deeply moved, and, while the tears filled his
eyes, asked, in tremulous tones,--

"Do you think father'll ever get over it, mother?"

"Tom," replied she, "your father has a true heart and a good mind, and
I believe that, in some way, good will yet come out of this
long-continued trial. He's taken a great liking to the missionary; and
Mr. Payson seems to understand him better than most, and I am praying
that the acquaintance may lead to something brighter for him; and,
Tom," she added, "I have told you this that you may see a new reason
for not being in haste to leave your father