“The Bushnell has been tried, and you are the last man that ought to raise a question about the Plumb.”
That afternoon the team of the senior Sutliff was driven through the center of Hartford and to the hay-barn of Andrew Bushnell, where it was duly loaded, the two choicest spires being extended longitudinally a short distance from the top. Passing the house, Mary was taken on and a merry trio proceeded northward only to be expanded to a jubilant quartette on arriving at the Hill. No suspicion was aroused, for those were days when a woman’s worth and modesty were not lessened by her being seen in sun-bonnet and shawl upon a load of hay.
III.
One, two, three, ——, ——, ——, ——, ——, ——, ——, ——, twelve, went the clock in the old, low Sutliff mansion; a light two-horse wagon, the bed filled with hay as if covering a “grist,” was backed out of the barn; two strong horses were attached; warm kisses were administered to ruby lips; and a couple of well-wrapped female forms ascended to the seat; a delicately gloved hand laid hold of the lines, and the team sped briskly towards the “Kinsman woods.”
IV.
Deacon Andrews, in the old farm house still standing on the brink of the little ravine south of the hamlet of Lindenville, had put up his morning prayer for the drowning host of Pharaoh, the Greeks, the Romans and the Jews, said “Amen” and arisen from his knees, when his wife, looking out of the window, exclaimed: “See, husband, there’s the Sutliff team; but who is driving? As I live, if it isn’t a couple of girls, and all the way up from Vernon so early as this! What can they want?”
“Going to the ‘Harbor’ with grain, I presume; likely the men folks are busy.”
“But then I didn’t know the Sutliffs have any girls.”
“Well, wife, likely they’ve hired the team to some of the neighbors. You start the children out after chestnuts, quick.”
There was a lively scampering of young Andrews to the woods; a hasty breakfasting of girls and horses; a close examination of the sacks under the hay to see if all was right; a pleasant “good morning,” and the team went northward and the deacon to his work, mentally exclaiming: “Great and marvelous are the works of the Almighty—and Plumb and Sut—” but he checked the irreverent conclusion.