The Heart

"Harry," he said, then paused and blushed and twisted his great body

about as modestly as a girl, "Harry."

"What, Sir Humphrey?"

"Once, once--I never told of it, and no one ever knew since I was

alone, and it would have been boasting--but once--I--fought

single-handed with that great Christopher Little, whom I met by

chance when I was out in the woods, and 'twas two years since,

and I, with scarce my full growth, and he pleading for mercy at

the second round, with an eye like a blackberry and a nose like a

gillyflower, and--and--Harry, you might tell her of it, and say not

where you got the news, if you thought it no harm. And, Harry, you

will mind the time when I killed the wolf with naught but an oak

club for weapon, and she, maybe, hath not heard of that. And I

should have been to the front with Bacon, boy as I was, had it not

been for my mother--that you know well and could make her sure of.

And, and--oh, confound it, Harry, little book wit have I in my head,

and she is so clever as never was, and all I have to win her notice

be in my hands and heels, for, Harry, you will remember the race

I ran with Tom Talbot that Mayday; think you she knows of that?

And--but she must know how I rode against Nick Barry last St.

Andrew's, and, and--oh, Lord, Harry, what am I that she should think

of me? But at all odds, whether it be me or you or any other man,

see to it that these goods be moved and she not be drawn into this

which is hatching, for it may be as big a blaze as Bacon started

before we be done with it; but shall I not help thee, Harry, and

when will you move them and where?"

"I want no help, lad," I said, and was indeed firmly set in my mind

that he should know nothing about the disposal of the goods lest

Mistress Mary come to grief through her love for him, and reasoning

that ignorance was his best safeguard and hers.

We went forth from Locust Creek, I having promised that I would do

all that I could to further his suit with Mary Cavendish, and when

we reached the bend of the road, he having walked beside me,

hitherto leading his horse, he was in his saddle and away, having

first acquainted me anxiously with the fact that he was to wear that

night to the governor's ball a suit of blue velvet with silver

buttons, and asking me if I considered that it would become him in

Mistress Mary's eyes. Then I went home to Drake Hill, passing along

such a wonderful aisle of bloom of locust and peach and mulberry and

honeysuckle and long trails of a purple vine of such a surprise of

beauty as to make one incredible that he saw aright--bushes

pluming white to the wind, and over all a medley of honey and almond

and spicy scents seeming to penetrate the very soul, that I was set

to reflecting in the midst of my sadness of renunciation of my love,

and my anxiety for her if, after all, such roads of blessing which

were set for our feet at every turn led not of a necessity to

blessed ends, and if our course tended not to happiness, whether we

knew it or not, and along whatever byways of sorrow.