"So you will; the reward of an approving conscience, which is beyond the price of rubies."
"I know all 'bout that," said he, slinging one leg over the other, after which he nursed the upper knee and swayed the foot back and forth; "but that don't satisfy me. I want more."
"We have a little farm, you know; I'll give you my share in that, and father, I'm sure, will pay you everything he can get together."
"Yes, but that ain't enough, Maggie."
"What else can we do?" she asked, despairingly, while her sex's intuition told her what he was hinting at.
"I want you," he said, bending his head close to her, while she recoiled; "if you'll be my wife, I'll let your father, Eva, yourself, and even Aunt Peggy, go; if you don't, the Senecas shall tomahawk them all."
Maggie Brainerd knew this was coming, and she asked herself whether it was not her duty to be offered up as a sacrifice, to save her beloved friends. Would there be any more heroism in doing so than had been displayed before by thousands of her sex?
She was prayerfully considering the question, when her indignant father, who had heard it all, broke in with:
"Tell him no—a thousand times no! If you don't, you are no daughter of mine!"