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JEALOUSY. | : 17
been holding a kind of council without, that Arthur Jones and Wil.:
liam Danforth, as the two youngest members of the community,’
should be dispatched to the nearest settlement to request aid to pro-
tect them from the Indians, whose immediate attack they had good:
+h po : :
reason to fear. wos . .
Martha, on hearing the names of the emissaries mentioned,
dropped the cup she had been filling. — . ;
‘© Oh, not him — not them, I mean — they ‘will be overtaken and
tomahawked by the way !’’ she exclaimed, turning to her father
with a look of affright. : . es
‘**Let Mr. Danforth remain,’’ said Jones, advancing to the table 5
‘¢T will undertake the mission alone.’
Tears came into Martha’s eyes, and she turned them reproachfully
to her lover ; but, full of his heroic resolution to be tomahawked and
comfortably scalped on his own responsibility, he turned majestically,
without deigning to meet the tearful glance which was well caleula~
ted to mitigate his jealous wrath.
Danforth, on being applied to, requested permission to defer his
answer till the morning, and the hunters left the house to divide
the game, which had been forgotten in the general excitement.’
Danforth, who had lingered* to’ the last, tookup his cap, and
whispering good-night to Martha, left the house. The poor girl
_ scarcely heeded his departure. Her eyes filled with tears, and seat-
ing herself on a settee which ran along one end of the room, she fold-
ed her arms on a board ‘which served as a back, and burying her
face upon them, wept violently. I
as she remained in this position, she heard a familiar step on the
floor. Her heart beat quick, fluttered a moment, and then settled
to its regular pulsations again; for her’ lover had seated himself
beside her. Martha’ wiped the tears from her eyes and | remained
quiet, for she knew that-he had returned, and with that, knowledge,
_the-spirit of coquetry had revived ; and when Jones, softened by
her apparent sorrow — for he had seen’ her parting. with Danforth
— put his hand softly under ‘her forehead and raised her face, the
creature was laughing — laughing at his folly, as he thought. ©
** Martha, you are doing wrong — wrorfg to yourself and to me,’’
said the disappointed lover, rising indignantly and taking his hat,
with which he advanced to the door. : ! a
‘Don’t ‘go,’’ said Martha, turning her head till ‘one cheek only
rested on her arm, and casting 2 glance, half-repentant, half-comie,
on her retreating lover; ‘¢ don’t go off so; if you do, you’ll be very
sorry for it.” a : -
- Jones hesitated— she became very scrious — the tears sprang to
her eyes, and she looked exceedingly -penitent.. He returned to her
side, «Had he appealed to her feelings then — had he spoken of the
pain she had given him in her encouragement of another, she would
have acknowledged the fault with all proper humility; but he did no
such thing —he was a common-sense man, and he resolved to end hig