him all the while in close attendance, regarding the besmeared, sallow, and disfigured wretch with as much affection as if he had been the very choicest of all God's creatures. Such is the heart, erring continually in its appropriation of sympathies, which, though intrinsically they may be valueless, are yet singularly in proof of that care of nature, which permits no being to go utterly unblest by its regard, and bestows on every homestead, however lowly, some portion of its soothing and its sunshine.
Goggle had eaten, and now, like a gorged snake, he threw himself once more at length upon the couch that stood in the corner, grumbling, as he did so—
"A'drat it! I hate to go out again! But I must—I must go back to camp, to blind Singleton; and as for that fellow Humphries, hear you, mother—I was in the pond by Coburn's corner when he came upon me, and just about to cross it. They called out, and crack, crack went their pistols, and the balls both times whizzed close above my head. It was then they gave chase, and I lay close, and hugged the hollow. Singleton's horse stood right across me, and I expected his hoofs every moment upon my back."
"You don't say so, Neddy?"
"Ay, but I do—but that's not it. The danger was something, to be sure, but even then I could listen—I could hear all they said; and I had reason to listen, too, for it was of me Humphries spoke. The keen chap suspected me to be the man they chased, though they could not make me out; and so he spoke of me. Can you count up what he said, mother?"
"No, Neddy; how should I?"
"What! and you tell fortunes, too, and bewitch, so that all of them call you cattle charmer, yet you can't tell what Bill Humphries spoke about me, your own son! For I reckon I am your son, no matter who was my right father!—Can you not tell,—eh?"
"No, sure not: some foul speech, I reckon, considering who spoke it."
"Ay, foul speech enough, if you knew. But the long and short of it, mother, is this, and I put the question to you plainly, and expect you to answer plainly—"
"What do you mean, my son?"
