"Oh, my husband!" she at length exclaimed, clasping her hands
together, and glancing upward, with tearful eyes, "why are you away
from me now? Oh, why did you break your promise to return hours and
hours ago?"

Then covering her face with her hands, she sobbed and wept, until,
startled by a sharp, unnatural cry from the lips of Ella, her
attention was once more fixed upon her suffering child.






CHAPTER III.





"Now, what will you take?" said Henry Ellis, as he entered, with the
weak and yielding Wilkinson, the bar-room of Parker's tavern.

"Any thing you choose to call for," replied Wilkinson, whose mind
was turning homeward, and who wished to be there. "In fact, I don't
really want any thing. Call for two glasses of cold water. These
will leave our heads clear."

"Water! Ha! ha! That is a good one, Bill"--and Ellis spoke to the