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14 his family, with which she shortly presented him.

The child was born, and in three years an addition was made of two more, without any change in the worldly circumstances of Constantine. By perseverance and undiminished zeal, he continued to force from the fearful “Field of Terror” an annual extension of produce, and thus redeemed his pledge to Sabina of bringing her through all her difficulties like an honest man.

One evening in autumn, as the shade of night began to set in, and Constantine was still busied with his spade, a tall robust man, of unusual size of limb, black and sooty as a charcoal-burner, and holding a furnace poker in his hand, appeared suddenly before him, and said: “Are there no cattle to be had in this part of the country, that you thus labour away with your two hands? One would suppose, by the extent of your landmarks, that you were a wealthy farmer.” Constantine was perfectly aware of the stranger’s character, and treated him in the same cool way, with which he usually