time had scolded the younger fry to sleep, found
herself, if we except the usual watchman below, in solitary possession
of the naked rock.

Whatever less valuable fruits had been produced in this uneducated woman
by her migratory habits, the great principle of female nature was too
deeply rooted ever to be entirely eradicated. Of a powerful, not to
say fierce temperament, her passions were violent and difficult to
be smothered. But, however she might and did abuse the accidental
prerogatives of her situation, love for her offspring, while it often
slumbered, could never be said to become extinct. She liked not the
protracted absence of Asa. Too fearless herself to have hesitated an
instant on her own account about crossing the dark abyss, into which she
now sat looking with longing eyes, her busy imagination, in obedience
to this inextinguishable sentiment, began to conjure nameless evils on
account of her son. It might be true, as Abiram had hinted, that he had
become a captive to some of the tribes who were hunting the buffaloe
in that vicinity, or even a still more dreadful calamity might have
befallen. So thought the mother, while silence and darkness lent their
aid to the secret impulses of nature.

Agitated by these reflections, which put sleep at defiance, Esther
continued at her post, listening with that sort of acuteness which is
termed instinct in the animals a few degrees below her in the scale of
intelligence, for any of those noises which might indicate the approach
of footsteps. At length, her wishes had an appearance of being realised,
for the long desired sounds were distinctly audible, and presently she
distinguished the dim form of a man at the base of the rock.

"Now, Asa, richly do you deserve to be left with an earthen bed this
blessed night!" the woman began to mutter, with a revolution in her
feelings, that will not be surprising to those who have made the
contradictions that give variety to the human character a study. "And
a hard one I've a mind it shall be! Why Abner; Abner; you Abner, do you
sleep? Let me not see you dare to open the hole, till I get down. I will
know who it is that wishes to disturb a peaceable, ay, and an honest
family too, at such a time in the night as this!"

"Woman!" exclaimed a voice, that intended to bluster, while the speaker
was manifestly a little apprehensive of the consequences; "Woman, I
forbid you on pain of the law to project any of your infernal missiles.