ling overboard from the sloop."

"Well, but my good fellow, how shall I get to James Town?"

"I'm sure I can't tell; but my idea is that you will never get there
unless mistress chooses."

"Why, surely she won't detain me by force?"

"Won't she?--you don't know her. Why, she'd stop an army," replied the
man. "I don't think that she will let you go--I don't know; but that's
my opinion. She wants another hand."

"What, do you mean to say that she'll make me work?"

"I mean to say that, according to the laws of the settlement, she has
a right to detain you. Any person found roving here, who cannot give a
satisfactory account of himself, may be detained till something is
heard about him; for he may be a runaway convict, or a runaway
apprentice, which is much the same, after all. Now, she may say that
your account of yourself is not satisfactory, and therefore she
detained you; and if you won't work, she won't give you to eat; so
there you are."

"Well, we will see if she is able."

"Able! if you mean strong enough, why she'd take you up with one hand;
and she is as resolute and severe as she is strong. I had rather have
to deal with three men, and that's the truth."

"What's the truth, James?" cried the mistress, coming in at the door.
"Let's hear the truth from your lips, it will be something new."

"I said that I was sent here for finding a pocket-book, mistress;
that's all."

"Yes; but you did not tell him where you found it--at the bottom of a
gentleman's coat-pocket, you know. You can only tell the truth by
halves yet, I see."

Wishing to ascertain how far the man's suspicions were correct, I said
to her,

"I have good friends in James Town: if I were once there I could
procure money and any thing else to any amount that I required."

"Well," says she, "you may have; but I'm afraid that the post don't go
out to-day. One would think, after all your wanderings and
difficulties, that you'd be glad to be quiet a little, and remain
here; so we'll talk about James Town some time about next spring."

"Indeed, mistress, I hope you will not detain me here. I can pay you
handsomely, on my arrival at James Town, for your kind treatment and
any trouble you may take for me."

"Pay me! what do I want with money?--there's no shops here with
ribbons, and calicoes, and muslins; and if there were, I'm not a fine
madam. Money! why I've no child to leave what I have to--no husband to
spend it for me. I have bags and b