a second visit."

"And our father bid thee seek the creature where it was found! Husband, I
fear some heavy judgment for the sins of the parents, is likely to befall
the children."

"The babes are quietly in their slumbers, and, thus far, little wrong hath
been done us. I'll cast the halter from the stalled animal ere I sleep,
and Straight-Horns shall content us for the husking. We may have mutton
less savory, for this evil chance, but the number of thy flock will be
unaltered."

"And where is he, who hath mingled in our prayers, and hath eaten of our
bread; he who counselled so long in secret with our father, and who hath
now vanished from among us, like a vision?"

"That indeed is a question not readily to be answered," returned Content,
who had hitherto maintained a cheerful air, in order to appease what he
was fain to believe a causeless terror in the bosom of his partner, but
who was induced by this question to drop his head like one that sought
reasons within the repository of his own thoughts. "It mattereth not,
Ruth Heathcote; the ordering of the affair is in the hands of a man of
many years and great experience; should his aged wisdom fail, do we not
know that one even wiser than he, hath us in his keeping? I will return
the beast to his rack, and when we shall have jointly asked favor of eyes
that never sleep, we will go in confidence to our rest."

"Husband, thou quittest not the palisadoes again this night," said Ruth,
arresting the hand that had already drawn a bolt, ere she spoke. "I have a
warning of evil."