and these were occupied by a small
garden or vegetable patch, meagrely stocked with scattered and half
parched plants; and by a cornfield, along the skirts of which some lean
hogs were seen groping with a felonious stealthiness. A shed, in the
same inclosure, formed a rendezvous for a few half-starved cattle, that
probably obtained their principal but slender support from the
neighboring wood. Add to these a troop of fowls, that were now at roost
upon one of the trees hard by, and we have, probably, a tolerably
correct inventory of the worldly goods of this little family.

The woman of the house was kind and hospitable, and her attentions were
in no small degree quickened by the application of a few pieces of money
which Mildred insisted upon her receiving--much to the discomfiture of
the dame's self-possession--the boon consisting of hard coin, to an
amount of which, perhaps, she had never before been mistress.

Mildred was exceedingly fatigued, and it was an object of early
consideration to furnish her the means of rest. Our hostess assisted by
old Isaac, and officiously but awkwardly superintended by Horse Shoe,
began her preparations for supper, to the abundance of which the
provident sergeant was enabled to contribute some useful elements from
his wallet. In one of the apartments of the hut, a shock-bed was spread
for the lady, and by the assistance of her cloak and some other
commodities which had been provided as part of her travelling gear, she
was supplied with a couch that formed no ill exchange for the weariness
of her long-inhabited saddle. Use and necessity are kind nursing-mothers
to our nature, and do not often fail to endow us with the qualities
proper to the fortune they shape out for us. This was not Mildred's
first experience of a homely lodging since she left the Dove Cote; and,
as privation and toil have a faculty to convert the rough pallet of the
peasant into a bed of down, she hailed the present prospect of rest with
a contented and grateful spirit.

The supper being dispatched, our lady was left alone with her hostess,
to seek the repose of which she stood so much in need.

The sergeant now set about making provision for the rest of his party.
This was done by erecting a shelter beneath one of the trees of the
forest, opposite to the door of the cabin. It was composed of a few
boughs stacked against the trunk of the tree, sufficiently covered with
leaves to turn aside any rain that might happ