"Aunt Hannah, I have but a few minutes left. If you will permit me, I will just give my horse some water and go." "Go! What, so suddenly? Lord, Lord, and Reuben away out in the field and the children with him! And you'll go away without taking a last farewell of them. I'll call Sam and send for them if you will wait a minute. Sam! Sam! Sam!" cried Hannah, going to the back door and screaming at the top of her voice. But no Sam was forthcoming. "Plague take that nigger! I do wish from the very bottom of my heart the deuce had him! Now, what shall I do?" she cried, returning to the room and dropping into her chair. Fate answered the question by relieving her from her dilemma. The front door opened and Reuben Gray entered, leading the two children and saying: "It was too sharp for 'em out there, Hannah, my dear, especially as Molly, bless her, was a-sneezin' dreadful, as if she was a-catchin' a cold in her head; and so I fotch 'em in." "Reuben, where's your eyes? Don't you see who is in the room? Here's Ishmael!" exclaimed Hannah irately. "Ishmael! Why, so he is! Why, Lord bless you, boy. I'm so glad to see you!" exclaimed Reuben, with his honest face all in a glow of delight as he shook his guest's hands. And at the same time the children let go their father's hand, and stood before the young man, waiting eagerly to be noticed. "Yes, you better look at him! Look at him your fill now, You'll never see him again!" groaned Hannah. "Never see who again? What are you talking about, Hannah, my dear?" "Ishmael! He's come to bid a last good-by to us all. He's a-going to leave his native country! He's a-going to foreign parts!" "Ishmael going to foreign parts!" exclaimed Reuben, gazing in surprise on his young guest. "Yes, Uncle Reuben, I am going to England with Judge Merlin on business." "Well, to be sure! that is a surprise! I knowed the judge was a- going to see his darter; but I had no idee that you was a-going 'long of him," said Reuben. "When do you go? that is what I want to know," cried Hannah sharply. "We sail in the 'Oceana' from Boston on Wednesday; and that is the reason, Aunt Hannah, why I am so hurried; you see I must reach Washington to-night so as to finish up my business there, and take the early train for the North on Tuesday morning." "What? you going in one of them steamers? Oh, law!" "What is the matter, ma'am?" "I know the steamer'll burst its boiler, or catch afire, or sink, or something! I know it!" "Lord, Hannah, don't dishearten people that-a-way! Why should the steamer do anything of the kind?" said Reuben, with a doubtful and troubled air. "Because they are always and for everlasting a-doing of such things. Just think what happened to the 'Geyser'--burst her boiler and scalded everybody to death!" "Law, Hannah! that was only one in a--"