When his father had closed the prayers of the morning, Content, in the
midst of the assembled family, communicated as many of the incidents of
the past night as in his judgment seemed necessary. His discretion limited
the narrative to the capture of the native youth, and to the manner in
which he had ordered the watch for the security of the family On the
subject of his own excursion to the forest, and all connected therewith,
he was guardedly silent.

It is unnecessary to relate the manner in which this startling information
was received. The cold and reserved brow of the Puritan became still more
thoughtful; the young men looked grave, but resolute; the maidens of the
household grew pale, shuddered, and whispered hurriedly together; while
the little Ruth, and a female child of nearly her own age, named Martha,
clung close to the side of the mistress of the family, who, having nothing
new to learn, had taught herself to assume the appearance of a resolution
she was far from feeling.

The first visitation which befell the listeners, after their eager ears
had drunk in the intelligence Content so briefly imparted, was a renewal
of the spiritual strivings of his father in the form of prayer. A
particular petition was put up in quest of light on their future
proceedings, for mercy on all men, for a better mind to those who wandered
through the wilderness seeking victims of their wrath, for the gifts of
grace on the heathen, and finally for victory over all their carnal
enemies, let them come whence or in what aspect they might.

Fortified by these additional exercises, old Mark next made himself the
master of all the signs and evidences of the approach of danger, by a more
rigid and minute inquiry into the visible circumstances of the arrest of