ming their own land; and every one among us rides his
own charger, which is more than these cussed fellows do.' He nodded
towards the dragoons.

'Hush, hush! Why, these are friends and neighbours of Miller Loveday,
and he is a great friend of ours--our best friend,' said Anne with great
emphasis, and reddening at the sense of injustice to their host. 'What
are you thinking of, talking like that? It is ungenerous in you.'

'Ha, ha! I've affronted you. Isn't that it, fair angel, fair--what do
you call it?--fair vestal? Ah, well! would you was safe in my own house!
But honour must be minded now, not courting. Rollicum-rorum, tol-lol-
lorum. Pardon me, my sweet, I like ye! It may be a come down for me,
owning land; but I do like ye.'

'Sir, please be quiet,' said Anne, distressed.

'I will, I will. Well, Corporal Tullidge, how's your head?' he said,
going towards the other end of the room, and leaving Anne to herself.

The company had again recovered its liveliness, and it was a long time
before the bouncing Rufus who had joined them could find heart to tear
himself away from their society and good liquors, although he had had
quite enough of the latter before he entered. The natives received him
at his own valuation, and the soldiers of the camp, who sat beyond the
table, smiled behind their pipes at his remarks, with a pleasant twinkle
of the eye which approached the satirical, John Loveday being not the
least conspicuous in this bearing. But he and his friends were too
courteous on such an occasion as the present to challenge the young man's
large remarks, and readily permitted him to set them right on the details
of camping and other military routine, about which the troopers seemed
willing to let persons hold any opinion whatever, provided that they
themselves were not obliged to give attention to it; showing, strangely
enough, that if there was one subject more than another which never
interested their minds, it was the art of war. To them the art of
enjoying good company in Overcombe Mill, the details of the miller's
household, the swarming of his bees, the number of his chickens, and the
fatness of his pigs, were matters of infinitely greater concern.

The present writer, to whom this party has been described times out of
number by members of the Loveday family and other aged people now passed
away, can never enter the old living-room of Overcombe Mill without
beholding the genial scene through th