he table.
'Salmon, ribs of beef, loin of mutton, veal, pasties--what could man
wish for more? Plenty of good home-brewed, too, to wash it down. If
worthy Master Timewell can arrange that the army be victualled after the
same fashion, I for one shell be beholden to him. A cup of dirty water
and a charred morsel cooked on a ramrod over the camp fire are like to
take the place of these toothsome dainties.'

'Is it not best to have faith?' said the Puritan maiden. 'Shall not the
Almighty feed His soldiers even as Elisha was fed in the wilderness and
Hagar in the desert?'

'Aye,' exclaimed a lanky-haired, swarthy young man who sat upon the
right of Sir Gervas, 'he will provide for us, even as the stream of
water gushed forth out of dry places, even as the quails and the manna
lay thick upon barren soil.'

'So I trust, young sir,' quoth Saxon, 'but we must none the less arrange
a victual-train, with a staff of wains, duly numbered, and an intendant
over each, after the German fashion. Such things should not be left to
chance.'

Pretty Mistress Timewell glanced up with a half startled look at this
remark, as though shocked at the want of faith implied in it. Her
thoughts might have taken the form of words had not her father entered
the room at the moment, the whole company rising and bowing to him as he
advanced to his seat.

'Be seated, friends,' said he, with a wave of his hand; 'we are a homely
folk, Colonel Saxon, and the old-time virtue of respect for our elders
has not entirely forsaken us. I trust, Ruth,' he continued, 'that thou
hast seen to the wants of our guests.'

We all protested that we had never received such attention and
hospitality.

''Tis well, 'tis well,' said the good wool-worker. 'But your plates are
clear and your glasses empty. William, look to it! A good workman
is ever a good trencherman. If a 'prentice of mine cannot clean his
platter, I know that I shall get little from him with carder and teazel.
Thew and sinew need building up. A slice from that round of beef,
William! Touching that same battle of Ober-Graustock, Colonel, what part
was played in the fray by that regiment of Pandour horse, in which, as I
understand, thou didst hold a commission?'

This was a question on which, as may be imagined, Saxon had much to say,
and the pair were soon involved in a heated discussion, in which the
experiences of Roundway Down and Marston Moor were balanced against the
results of a score of unpronou