little time about her toilette, either because her taste was difficult
to be suited, or because her employment afforded an excuse for looking
at what was certainly more attractive than the flowers themselves. She
was so long about their arrangement, that she had hardly completed it,
and had time to twist her neck into only five or six attitudes, to see
how they became her, when a rustling was heard in the bushes, and
immediately the Assistant Spikeman stood by her side.

"Verily, sweet maiden," he said, "thine eyes outshine the stars, which
will soon twinkle in the sky, and the flowers around thee pine with
envy at beholding a blush lovelier than their own."

A sudden and unpleasant interruption put a stop to the fine speeches
of the debauched hypocrite, for he had hardly concluded the sentence,
when, without a warning, a strong hand grasped his throat, and he was
hurled with irresistible violence to the ground. As the Assistant was
lying prostrate on his face, he could hear Prudence, with screams,
each fainter than the former, running in the direction of the
settlement, while, without a word being spoken, his arms were
violently forced upon his back and bound, an operation which his
struggles were unable to prevent. This being performed, he was
suffered to rise, and, upon gaining his feet, he saw himself in the
presence of Sassacus. The blood fled the cheeks and lips of Spikeman
as he beheld the savage, and felt that he was in the hands of one
whom, without cause, he had injured, and who belonged to that wild
race, with whom revenge is a duty as well as a pleasure. His knees
trembled, and he was in danger of falling to the ground, as the
thought of death, whereof horrid torments should be the precursors,
flashed through his mind. But the trepidation was only momentary, and
soon, with the hardihood of his audacious nature, he steeled himself