Returning to Charlestown, he disposed of his return cargo again at a very fine profit.

And now, with a light heart and a heavy purse, he resolved to visit his sweetheart and parents, of whom, for three years, he had had no tidings.
They were not less astonished than delighted at his reappearance; he had been numbered with the dead.

But his love still seemed strangely coy; willing, but yet somehow mysteriously withheld.

The old intrigues were still on foot.

Israel soon discovered, that though rejoiced to welcome the return of the prodigal son--so some called him--his father still remained inflexibly determined against the match, and still inexplicably countermined his wooing.