time to give you notice. But, Ishmael, what have
you been killing, my man, for it was your rifle, I heard a few minutes agone,
unless I have lost my skill in sounds.«
    »Poh! 'twas to frighten the hawk you see, sailing above the rock.«
    »Hawk, indeed! at your time of day, to be shooting at hawks and buzzards,
with eighteen open mouths to feed! Look at the bee, and at the beaver, my good
man, and learn to be a provider. Why, Ishmael! I believe my soul,« she
continued, dropping the tow she was twisting on a distaff, »the man is in that
tent ag'in! More than half his time is spent about that worthless,
good-for-nothing -«
    The sudden re-appearance of her husband closed the mouth of the wife, and as
the former descended to the place where Esther had resumed her employment, she
was content to grumble forth her dissatisfaction, instead of expressing it, in
more audible terms.
    The dialogue that now took place between the affectionate pair was
sufficiently succinct and expressive. The woman was at first a little brief and
sullen in her answers, but care for her family soon rendered her more
complaisant. As the purport of the conversation was merely an engagement to hunt
during the remainder of the day, in order to provide the chief necessary of
life, we shall not stop to record it.
    With this resolution, then, the squatter descended to the plains, and
divided his forces, into two parts; one of which was to remain as a guard with
the fortress, and the other to accompany him to the field. He warily included,
Asa and Abiram in his own party, well knowing that no authority short of his own
was competent to repress the fierce disposition of his head-strong son, if
fairly awakened. When these arrangements were completed, the hunters sallied
forth, separating, at no great distance from the rock in order to form a circle
about the distant herd of Buffaloes.
 

                                   Chapter IX

 »Priscian a little scratch'd;
 'Twill serve.«
                                                            Love's Labor's Lost,
                                                                      V.i.28-29.
 
Having made the reader acquainted with the manner in which Ishmael Bush had
disposed of his family, under circumstances that might have proved so
embarrassing to most other men, we shall again shift the scene a few short miles
from the place last described, preserving, however, the due and natural
succession of time. At the very moment that the squatter