"You, then, Dinah," said Margaret, impatiently. But in spite of her rheumatic joints, Rose was on her feet in an instant, and had taken the lamps, while Dinah, in her turn, prostrated herself.
"You're perfectly absurd, both of you!" Margaret exclaimed.
"Poor old creatures, you're rather hard on them, aren't you?" said Winthrop from the boat.
"Yes, I'm hard!" She said this with a little motion of her clinched hand backward—a motion which, though slight, was yet almost violent.
"We must lose no more time," she went on. "Go to the house, Rose—I suppose you can do that—and bring me the wraps I usually take when I go out in the canoe, the lantern and some candles——"
"No," said Winthrop, interposing; "let her bring pitch-pine knots, or, better still, torches, if they happen to have them."
It appeared that "Prime" always kept a supply of torches ready, and old Rose hurried off.
Margaret stepped into the boat; she stood a moment before taking her seat "I wish I could go by myself," she said.
"You know how to paddle, then?" Winthrop asked, shortly.
"No, that's it, I don't; at least I cannot paddle well. I should only delay everything, it would be ridiculous." She seated herself, and a moment later Rose appeared with the wraps and a great armful of torches.