Occasionally a gust of wind would fan the embers; and, as a brighter light shot upwards, the little solitary tent was seen as it were suspended in the gloom of the upper air.

All beyond was enveloped, as usual at that hour, in an impenetrable body of darkness.
"It is unaccountable that Asa should choose to be out of the way at such a time as this," Esther pettishly observed.

"When all is finished and to rights, we shall have the boy coming up, grumbling for his meal, and hungry as a bear after his winter's nap.

His stomach is as true as the best clock in Kentucky, and seldom wants winding up to tell the time, whether of day or night.

A desperate eater is Asa, when a-hungered by a little work!" Ishmael looked sternly around the circle of his silent sons, as if to see whether any among them would presume to say aught in favour of the absent delinquent.