when I thought over her conduct, and what
had passed between us, I perceived not only that the convicts were
right in their supposition, but that I had, by wishing to make myself
agreeable to her, even assisted in bringing affairs to this crisis.

That very day she had said to me: "I was very young when I married,
only fourteen, and I lived with my husband nine years. He is dead more
than a year now."

When she said that, which she did at dinner, while she was clawing the
flesh off the bone of a wild turkey, there was something so ridiculous
in that feminine confession, coming from such a masculine mouth, that
I felt very much inclined to laugh, but I replied,

"You are a young widow, and ought to think of another husband."

Again, when she said, "If ever I marry again, it shall not be a man
who has been burnt on the hand. No, no, my husband shall be able to
open both hands and show them."

I replied, "You are right there. I would never disgrace myself by
marrying a convict."

When I thought of these and many other conversations which had passed
between us, I had no doubt, in my own mind, but that the convicts were
correct in their suppositions, and I was disgusted at my own
blindness.

"At all events," said I to myself, after a long cogitation, "if she
wants to marry me, she must go to James Town for a parson, and if I
once get there, I will contrive, as soon as extra constables are sworn
in, to break off the match." But, seriously, I was in an awkward
plight. There was something in that woman that was awful, and I could
imagine her revenge to be most deadly. I thought the old Indian squaw
to be bad enough, but this new mistress was a thousand times worse.
What a hard fate, I thought, was mine, that I should be thus forced to
marry against my will, and be separated from her whom I adored. I was
a long while turning over the matter in my mind, and at last I
resolved that I would make no alteration in my behaviour, but behave
to her as before, and that if the affair was precipitated by my
mistress, that I would be off to the woods, and take my chance of wild
beasts and wild Indians, rather than consent to her wishes. I then
went into the cabin, where I found her alone.

"Alexander," said she (she would know my Christian name, and called me
by it), "they say widows court the men, and that they are privileged
to do so" (I turned pale, for I little thought that there was to be an
explanation so soon); "at all eve