he landlord of the "Foul Anchor" most
inopportunely, "that the good-man has absconded? It was a merry day the
one that is just gone, and it is quite in reason to believe your husband
was, like some others I can name--a thing I shall not be so unwise as to
do--a little of what I call how-come-ye-so, and that his nap holds on
longer than common. I'll engage we shall all see the honest tailor
creeping out of some of the barns shortly, as fresh and as ready for his
bitters as if he had not wet his throat with cold water since the last
time of general rej'icing."

A low but pretty general laugh followed this effort of tavern wit, though
it failed in exciting even a smile on the disturbed visage of Desire,
which, by its doleful outline, appeared to have taken leave of all its
risible properties for ever.

"Not he, not he," exclaimed the disconsolate consort of the good-man; "he
has not the heart to get himself courageous, in loyal drinking, on such an
occasion as a merry-making on account of his Majesty's glory; he was a man
altogether for work; and it is chiefly for his hard labour that I have
reason to complain. After being so long used to rely on his toil, it is a
sore cross to a dependant woman to be thrown suddenly and altogether on
herself for support. But I'll be revenged on him, if there's law to be
found in Rhode Island, or in the Providence Plantations! Let him dare to
keep his pitiful image out of my sight the lawful time, and then, when he
returns, he shall find himself, as many a vagabond has been before him,
without wife, as he will be without house to lay his graceless head
in."[1] Then, catching a glimpse of the inquiring face of the old seaman,
who by this time had worked his way to her very side, she abruptly added,
"Here is a stranger in the place, and one who has lately arrived! Did you
meet a straggling runaway, friend, in your journey hither?"

[Footnote 1: It would seem, from this declaration, that certain legal
antiquarians, who have contended that the community is indebted to
Desire for the unceremonious manner of clipping the nuptial knot, which
is so well known to exist, even to this hour, in the community of which
she was a member, are entirely in the wrong. It evidently did not take
its rise in her example, since she clearly alludes to it, as a means
before resorted to by me injured innocents of her own sex.]

"I had too much trouble in navigating my old hulk on dry land, to log th