s
the hill gave her.

"She is plucky, anyhow, if she is rather a tame wench," said he, as the
girl grasped the bridle rein at last, when about half way up the hill,
and became again mistress of the blooded creature beneath her.

"Is that the way you generally ride, Dulcibel?" asked the young man
smiling.

"It all comes from starting without my riding whip," replied the girl.
"Oh, do stop!" she continued to the horse who now on the level again,
began sidling and curveting.

"Give me that switch of yours, Jethro. Now, you shall see a miracle."

No sooner was the switch in her hand, than the aspect and behavior of
the animal changed as if by magic. You might have thought the little
mare had been raised in the enclosure of a Quaker meeting-house, so
sober and docile did she seem.

"It is always so," said the girl laughing. "The little witch knows at
once whether I have a whip with me or not, and acts accordingly. No, I
will not forgive you," and she gave the horse two or three sharp cuts,
which it took like a martyr. "Oh, I wish you would misbehave a little
now; I should like to punish you severely."

They made a very pretty picture, the little jet-black mare, and the
mistress with her scarlet paragon bodice, even if the latter was
entirely too pronounced for the taste of the great majority of the
inhabitants, young and old, of Salem village.

"But how do you happen to be here?" said the girl.

"I called to see you, and found you had gone on a visit to Joseph
Putnam's. So I thought I would walk up the road and meet you coming
back."

"What a sweet creature Mistress Putnam is, and both so young for man and
wife."

"Yes, Jo married early, but he is big enough and strong enough, don't
you think so?"

"He is a worshiped man indeed. Have you met the stranger yet?"

"That Ellis Raymond? No, but I hear he is something of a popinjay in his
attire, and swelled up with the conceit that he is better than any of us
colonists."

"I do not think so," and the girl's cheek colored a deeper red. "He
seems to be a very modest young man indeed. I liked him very much."

"Oh, well, I have not seen him yet. But they say his father was a son of
Belial, and fought under the tyrant at Naseby."

"But that is all over and his widowed mother is one of us."

"Hang him, what does it matter!" Then, changing his tone, and looking at
her a little suspiciously. "Did Leah Herrick say anything to you against
me the other night at the hu