It was like any one of a thousand visits he had made there. Annette met him at the door.
"Why, of all things!" said she. "What have you here?"
"C'ris'mus p-present, Lady Ann," said he.
It should be said that with Silas a gift was a "Christmas present" every day in the year—the cheerful spirit of that time being always with him.
He proudly put the cage in her hands.
"Much obliged to you, Sile," said she, laughing.
"S-Strong's ahead!" he stammered, cheerfully.
This indicated that in his fight with the powers of evil Strong felt as if he had at least temporary advantage. When, perhaps, after a moment of anger it seemed that the Evil One had got the upper hold on him, he was wont to exclaim, "Satan's ahead!" But the historian is glad to say that those occasions were, in the main, rare and painful.
"Strong will never give in," said Annette, with laughter.
Strong's affection was expressed only in signs and tokens. Of the former there were his careful preparation for each visit, and many sighs and blushes, and now and then a tender glance of the eye. Of tokens there had been many—a tame fox, ten mink-skins, a fawn, a young thrush, a pancake-turner carved out of wood, and other important trifles. For twenty years he had been coming, but never a word of love had passed between them.