`` My poor boy , are you so feeble ? '' said the Puritan . `` When did you taste food last ? '' `` I ate of bread and water with my father in the prison , '' replied Ilbrahim , `` but they brought him none neither yesterday nor to-day , saying that he had eaten enough to bear him to his journey 's end . Trouble not thyself for my hunger , kind friend , for I have lacked food many times ere now . '' The traveller took the child in his arms and wrapped his cloak about him , while his heart stirred with shame and anger against the gratuitous cruelty of the instruments in this persecution . In the awakened warmth of his feelings he resolved that at whatever risk he would not forsake the poor little defenceless being whom Heaven had confided to his care . With this determination he left the accursed field and resumed the homeward path from which the wailing of the boy had called him . The light and motionless burden scarcely impeded his progress , and he soon beheld the fire-rays from the windows of the cottage which he , a native of a distant clime , had built in the Western wilderness . It was surrounded by a considerable extent of cultivated ground , and the dwelling was situated in the nook of a wood-covered hill , whither it seemed to have crept for protection . `` Look up , child , '' said the Puritan to Ilbrahim , whose faint head had sunk upon his shoulder ; `` there is our home . '' At the word `` home '' a thrill passed through the child 's frame , but he continued silent . A few moments brought them to the cottage door , at which the owner knocked ; for at that early period , when savages were wandering everywhere among the settlers , bolt and bar were indispensable to the security of a dwelling . The summons was answered by a bond-servant , a coarse-clad and dull-featured piece of humanity , who , after ascertaining that his master was the applicant , undid the door and held a flaring pine-knot torch to light him in . Farther back in the passageway the red blaze discovered a matronly woman , but no little crowd of children came bounding forth to greet their father 's return . As the Puritan entered he thrust aside his cloak and displayed Ilbrahim 's face to the female . `` Dorothy , here is a little outcast whom Providence hath put into our hands , '' observed he . `` Be kind to him , even as if he were of those dear ones who have departed from us . '' `` What pale and bright-eyed little boy is this , Tobias ? '' she inquired .
`` Is he one whom the wilderness-folk have ravished XXXXX some Christian mother ? ''
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