r
them. Hey, mates, up Great East Cheap!" And off they marched to the
Boar's Head Inn.

CHAPTER XXXV

A SUDDEN RESOLVE

Nick and Cicely were sitting on a bench in the sun beside the tap-room
door, munching a savory mutton-pie which Tommy Webster had bought for
them. Beside them over the window-sill the tapster twirled his spigot
cheerfully, and in the door the carrier was bidding the
serving-maids good-by.

Around the inn-yard stood a row of heavy, canvas-covered wains and
lumbering two-wheeled carts, each surmounted by a well-armed guard, and
drawn by six strong horses with harness stout as cannon-leathers. The
hostlers stood at the horses' heads, chewing at wisps of barley-straw as
though their other fare was scant, which, from their sleek rotundity,
was difficult to believe. The stable-boy, with a pot of slush, and a
head of hair like a last year's haycock, was hastily greasing a
forgotten wheel; while, out of the room where the servants ate, the
drivers came stumbling down the steps with a mighty smell of onions and
brawn. The weekly train from London into the north was ready to be off.

A portly, well-clad countryman, with a shrewd but good-humored
countenance, and a wife beside him round and rosy of face as he, came
bustling out of the private door. "How far yet, Master John?" he asked
as he buckled on his cloak. "Forty-two miles to Oxford, sir," replied
the carrier. "We must be off if we're to lie at Uxbridge overnight; for
there hath been rain beyond, sir, and the roads be werry deep."

Nick stared at the man for Oxford. Forty-two miles to Oxford! And Oxford
lay to the south of Stratford fifty miles and two. Ninety-four miles
from Stratford town! Ninety-four miles from home!

"When will my father come for us, Nick?" asked Cicely, turning her hand
in the sun to see the red along the edges of her fingers.

"Indeed, I can na tell," said Nick; "Master Will Shakspere is coming
anon, and I shall go with him."

"And leave me by myself?"

"Nay; thou shalt go, too. Thou'lt love to see his garden and the
rose-trees--it is like a very country place. He is a merry gentleman,
and, oh, so kind! He is going to take me home."

"But my father will take us home when he comes."

"To Stratford town, I mean."

"Away from daddy and me? Why, Nick!"

"But my mother is in Stratford town."

Cicely was silent. "Then I think I would go, too," she said quite
softly, looking down as if there were a picture on the