e, where she
could ha' clapped eyes on ye, now and again. She--"

"Oh! don't misjudge my darling aunt! She hated to have me come as
badly as I hated to leave her; but, though I've never been really ill,
she fancied that this climate would make me very, very strong.
Besides, the minister who founded Oak Knowe--he was a bishop, I
believe--was one of her girlhood friends, and so she chose it for
that, too. Anyway, to her who has traveled so much, Canada and
Maryland seem but a little way apart."

"That's right, lassie. That's right. Be loyal to your friends, whether
they be right or wrong. An' talk about travel, there beant many
corners of this earth that I haven't took a glance at. I've not always
been a farmer, though you mightn't think it now."

They had passed out of the city streets into the open country, the
oxen swaying and pacing sedately along, as if it mattered nothing how
late they might reach home. To pass the time, Dorothy asked the old
man to talk about his own travels, and he promptly answered:

"In course, and obleeged for anybody to care to listen. Dame has heard
my yarns so often, she scoffs 'em; but I've seen a power o' things in
my day, a power o' things. I was born in Lunnon, raised in Glasgo',
run away to Liverpool and shipped afore the mast. From sailor I turned
soldier under Chinese Gordon--Ah! the man he wus! Miner, constable, me
Lord's butler, then his cook, and now, at the fag end of my days,
settled down to be my Dame's right-hand-man. She was a likely widow,
coming from England to take up land here, and I met her aboard ship,
last time I crossed seas. Didn't take us long to strike a bargain. She
needed a man to till her farm; I needed a good woman to mend me and do
for me, for I was that tired of rovin'--my hearties! We get along
well. We get along prime. I do the talking and her does the thinking.
She's that uncommon thing--a silent woman. Like to hear how I come
nigh-hand to death along of a devil fish? Want to feel your hair
rise on end and your arms get reg'lar goose-fleshy? Makes me nigh
get that way myself, every time I recall--Whist! If that ain't
thunder I'm a-dreamin', sure! Thunder this season of the year! Now
that's fair ridic'lous. But mentionin' devil fish, yon comes one
them red go-devils, Dame calls 'em, as squawkin', blazing-eyed
automobeelyers--comin' this minute. No marvel natur' gets topsy-turvy
with them wild things ramsaging round. But, quick, lassie! Do your
young eye