e'll not let me come to speech of her."

"Ay, ay, good friend, I see," exclaimed Priscilla, holding up her
slender shapely hand. "And here's the cat's-paw that's to pull thy
chestnuts from the fire!"

"Nay Priscilla"--

"Yea Captain! Put not thy wit to further distress, good friend, for it
needs not; I see all and more than all thou couldst tell me. Go thy way
to the Fort, and look over thy dear guns and wait until thou seest--what
thou wilt see."

And with a little push the young matron thrust her guest out of the open
door of the scullery, and hasted to finish her own labors.

Almost an hour passed and the Captain of the Armies of New England had
uncovered and examined and sighted and petted each gun in his armament
more than once; had considered the range of the saker, the minion, the
falcon, and the bases; and had stood gazing blankly at the whitened
skull of Wituwamat above the gate of the Fort until the wrens who nested
there began to fly restlessly in and out, fancying that the captain
planned an invasion of their territory. He still stood in this posture
when the rustle of a footfall among the dried herbage reached his quick
ear, and turning he confronted Barbara, whose down-dropt eyes hid the
gleam of amusement the sight of his melancholy attitude had kindled in
their depths.

"Priscilla says that you have returned home from the fishing because you
were but poorly, cousin, and she would have me come and ask if you cared
to speak with the chirurgeon who is going afield presently."

"So chill, so frozen, Barbara? Is 't so a kinswoman should speak with
one ill at ease both in mind and body?"

"I came but as a messenger, sir, and venture not to presume upon any
claim of kindred to one who joins the blood of Percivale to that of
Standish."

"Nay now, nay now, Barbara!--Here, come to the shaded side of the Fort,
and sit you down where we two sat"--

"We two sat on the bench without your door the last parley that we had,
good cousin."

"'Gentle tongues aye give the sharpest wounds,' and it is thou who
provest the proverb true, Barbara."

"Nay, I'll sit me down and listen with all meekness to what thou hast to
say, Captain Standish."

"Thanks for even so much courtesy, Barbara, for I have sought thee to
say that I deserve none at thy hands. I, to whose protection and
comforting thou hast come across the sea, have treated thee as no
base-born churl hath warrant for treating the meanest of woman-kind. I,