“No, Jane; what is to come makes the old Connecticut blood bile in my veins. I swan to man! it was all I could do to keep from jumping out of bed, and going in amongst them, when they sot down, and made up a plot to carry you off—them young Wintermoots was to do it, and meet Butler in the Blue Mountains after he’d got a heap of money that he expected from Sir John Johnson. I suppose that’s the son of Sir William Johnson, the old reprobate who had so many Injun wives in the Mohawk Valley, as if one wife wasn’t enough for any man in a new country where women folks are scarce. Well, as I was a-saying, Butler told ’em to go over to the island some night, and whistle like that—here he sent a long whistle through the partition that made me e’en a’most start up in bed, and the young Wintermoots practised on it like schoolboys learning their a-b-abs till they filled the hull house like a nest of blackbirds and brown thrashers.
“Butler told ’em that you’d spring out of bed like a hawk from its nest the moment you heard that, and if they only flattered you a little, and told you for earnest that he didn’t care a king’s farthing for the Indian girl, and wasn’t married to her, only Indian fashion, you’d be off with them, and glad enough to go.”
“He did, ha? he thinks I’ll follow him. Never mind, Aunt Polly. Let him come—let them whistle. Oh, how I wish I was a man.”
“Yes,” said Aunt Polly, thoughtfully, “men have their privileges. It’s something to be able to knock a chap down when he deserves it, and then, agin, when a man’s heart is full he can speak out, and not let his feelings curdle like sour milk in a pan. Yes, Janey, I think it would be pleasant if some of us could be men once in a while; but human nature is human nature, and it ain’t to be expected.”
“And this was all these wicked men said?” questioned Jane, who had lost half this speech in her own bitter thoughts.
“Yes, for when their plot was laid, they left the house. I peeped through the window, holding the valance close, that they could not see my nightcap, you know, and watched them shake hands before Butler mounted his horse. He rode off down stream, and the other fellers turned up the road towards Wintermoot’s Fort.”
“And this was all?”
“All that belongs to you; but now I’ve a word to say to Mary; by that time Gineral Washington will be tired of cropping vilets, I reckon, and we’ll be jogging down stream again.”
“Mary! what can you want with Mary?—not to tell her——”
“By no manner of means, Janey. If you want anybody else to help you, arter what I’ve told about these chaps, the truth is, you ain’t worth helping anyhow. A gal that can’t take care of herself when once warned, wouldn’t be kept back from ruin if a hull meeting-houseful of jest sich angels as our precious Mary was standing in the way. No, I don’t mean to torment that heavenly critter with any sich wickedness; but yet I’ve got a few words to say to her, and you’ll oblige me by going to the cabin and sending her out here at onst.”