and can count a hundred!"

The allusion to the fate of the lost sheep was so plain, as to admit of no
misinterpretation of the meaning of the witless speaker. Animals of that
class were of the last importance to the comfort of the settlers, and
there was not probably one within hearing of Whittal Ring, that was at all
ignorant of the import of his words. Indeed, the loud chuckle and the open
and deriding manner with which the lad himself held above his head the
hairy fibres that he had snatched from young Mark, allowed of no
concealment, had it been desirable.

"This feeble-gifted youth would hint, that thy knife hath proved its edge
on a wether that is missing from our flock, since the animals went on
their mountain range, in the morning," said the host, calmly; though even
he bent his eye to the floor, as he waited for an answer to a remark,
direct as the one his sense of justice, and his indomitable love of right,
had prompted.

The stranger demanded, in a voice that lost none of its depth or firmness,
"Is hunger a crime, that they who dwell so far from the haunts of
selfishness, visit it with their anger?"

"The foot of Christian man never approached the gates of Wish-Ton-Wish to
be turned away in uncharitableness, but that which is freely given should
not be taken in licentiousness. From off the hill where my flock is wont
to graze, it is easy, through many an opening of the forest, to see these
roofs; and it would have been better that the body should languish, than
that a grievous sin should be placed on that immortal spirit which is
already too deeply laden, unless thou art far more happy than others of
the fallen race of Adam."