the man who had once already placed his
life in jeopardy, seized him by the arm, and with a rude exercise of
his strength threw him from the spot he had selected as the one most
convenient for his object.

"It's an honest regulation, friend," the fellow, drily observed, though
with an eye that threatened volumes, "and sometimes it is a safe one,
which says, mind your own business."

"Men seldom bring any thing to be concealed into these deserts,"
returned the old man, as if willing, and yet a little ignorant how to
apologize for the liberty he had been about to take, "and I had hoped no
offence, in examining your comforts."

"They seldom bring themselves, I reckon; though this has the look of an
old country, to my eye it seems not to be overly peopled."

"The land is as aged as the rest of the works of the Lord, I believe;
but you say true, concerning its inhabitants. Many months have passed
since I have laid eyes on a face of my own colour, before your own.
I say again, friend, I meant no harm; I did not know, but there was
something behind the cloth, that might bring former days to my mind."

As the stranger ended his simple explanation, he walked meekly away,
like one who felt the deepest sense of the right which every man has to
the quiet enjoyment of his own, without any troublesome interference on
the part of his neighbour; a wholesome and just principle that he had,
also, most probably imbibed from the habits of his secluded life. As
he passed towards the little encampment of the emigrants, for such the
place had now become, he heard the voice of the leader calling aloud, in
its hoarse tones, the name of--

"Ellen Wade."

The girl who has been already introduced to the reader, and who was
occupied with the others of her sex around the fires, sprang willingly
forward at this summons; and, passing the stranger with the activity of
a young antelope, she was instantly lost behind the forbidden folds of
the tent. Neither her sudden disappearance, nor any of the arrangements
we have mentioned, seemed, however, to excite the smallest surprise
among the remainder of the party. The young men, who had already
completed their tasks with the axe, were all engaged after their
lounging and listless manner; some in bestowing equitable portions
of the fodder among the different animals; others in plying the heavy
pestle of a moveable homminy-mortar[*]; and one or two in wheeling the
remainder of the wagons aside, and ar