, or sweet old ladies, that was entirely outside of the average
seaman's thoughts. Toward all women in fact, young or old, pretty or
ugly, every sailor's heart at that day, as in this, warmed
involuntarily.

She also knew that the seamen as a class were rather inclined to what
the godly called license in their religious opinions. Had not the
sea-captains in Boston Harbor, some years before, unanimously refused to
carry the young Quakeress, Cassandra Southwick, and her brother, to the
West Indies and sell them there for slaves, to pay the fines incurred by
their refusal to attend church regularly? Had not one answered for the
rest, as paraphrased by a gifted descendant of the Quakers?--

"Pile my ship with bars of silver--pack with coins of Spanish gold,
From keelpiece up to deck-plank the roomage of her hold,
By the living God who made me! I would sooner in your bay
Sink ship and crew and cargo, than bear this child away!"

And so Master Raymond, who it was rumored had been a great admirer of
Dulcibel Burton, was on a visit to Boston, to see her father's old
friend, Captain John Alden! Mistress Putnam thought she could put two
and two together, if any woman could. She would check-mate that game--and
with one of her boldest strokes, too--that should strike fear into the
soul of even Joseph Putnam himself, and teach him that no one was too
high to be above the reach of her indignation.

The woman was so fierce in this matter, that I sometimes have
questioned, could she ever have loved and been scorned by Joseph Putnam?

CHAPTER XXI.

A Night Interview.

A few days passed and Master Raymond was back again; with a pleasant
word and smile for all he met, as he rode through the village. Mistress
Ann Putnam herself met him on the street and he pulled up his horse at
the side-path as she stopped, and greeted her.

"So you have been to Boston?" she said.

"Yes, I thought I would take a little turn and hear what was going on up
there."

"Who did you see--any of our people?"

"Oh, yes--the Nortons and the Mathers and the Higginsons and the
Sewalls--I don't know all.

"Good day; remember me to my kind brother Joseph and his wife," said
she, and Raymond rode on.

"What did that crafty creature wish to find out by stopping me?" he
thought to himself.

"He did not mention Captain Alden. Yes, he went to consult him," thought
Mistress Putnam.

Master Joseph Putnam was so anxious to meet his friend