t
never chance to visit Boston town. Yet already he half hoped that she
would. Of course, he would have grown bigger by then, and would carry a
sword and how he would prick the thin legs of the first grim deacon who
dared so much as to speak to her! These imaginings were put to rout at
the dining-room door by the delicious savor of roast turkey. One of the
black farmhands had shot the great bird the day before, and the three
travellers had arrived just at the fortunate moment when it was to be
carved.

It was a dinner never to be forgotten. The twenty miles they had ridden
through the crisp air would have given them an appetite, even had they
not been normally good trenchermen, and there were fine white potatoes
and yams that accompanied the turkey, not to mention some jelly which
Betty admitted having made herself, "with cook's help." Bob joyfully
attacked his heaped-up plate and ate with relish every minute that he
was not talking. Jeremy could say not a word, for opposite him was Betty
and in her presence he felt very large and awkward. His hands troubled
him. Indeed, had it been a possibility, he would have eaten his turkey
without raising them above the table edge. As it was, he felt himself
blush every time a vast red fist came in evidence. Yet he succeeded in
making a good meal and would not have been elsewhere for all Solomon
Brig's gold. Perhaps Job, who was neither talkative nor under the spell
of a lady's eyes, wielded the best knife and fork of the three.

Dinner over, and Bob's story finished, they were taken to see the stable
and the broad tilled fields by the river bank, where corn stood shocked
among the stubble. Afternoon came and soon it was time for them to
start. There were laughing farewells and a promise that they would stop
on the return trip, and before Jeremy could come back to earth the gloom
of the forest shut in above their heads once more. They put the horses
to a canter as soon as the ridge was cleared, for there were still ten
miles to go and the light was waning. Jeremy was very much at home in
the woods, but the chill, sombre depths that appeared and reappeared on
either hand seemed to warn him to be prepared. He reached to the
saddlebow, undid the flap of the pistol holster, and made sure that his
weapon was loaded, then put it back, reassured. The footing was bad, and
they had to go more slowly for a while. Then Bob, in the lead, came to a
more open space where light and ground alike