“It won’t make any difference, Hannah, whether ’tis fastened or not. If there’s horses there somebody gets them anyway. We leave the door open to save them the trouble of breaking the bolt.”
“Then why do we put the horses there?” queried Fairfax in blank consternation.
“We don’t, nevvy.” The farmer chuckled. “If we did we wouldn’t have them long. Wait a minute. There! There’s Mary now.”
The dwelling was a story and a half house, with a lean-to attached to one end. Just as Farmer Ashley finished speaking the whole front of the lean-to swung open in a great door, disclosing an aperture large enough to admit both horses and sleigh. Mrs. Ashley emerged from the dark interior as the door swung back, and came toward them.
“Well, that is a contrivance,” ejaculated Nurse Johnson after she had greeted her sister. “Who would think of finding a stable right in the house?”
“’Tis the only way we can keep a horse,” explained the farmer’s wife. “’Tis right next the kitchen, so we know the minute anything is wrong, if we have a horse there; which we have not at present. We believe that no one outside the family knows of its use for such purpose, and ’tis something to have a hiding-place for animals. But come in! Here we stand talking, and you must be both cold and hungry. Come, Hannah! And ye also, my dears. I am glad that the supper is belated to-night, for now ’twill be hot, which is well after a long journey.”
Thus talking she led them into the house, carefully bolting the door after them. A door on one side the chimney gave entrance to the lean-to. Another, on the other side of the room, opened into another apartment, but the kitchen itself seemed to be the main living-room. It was large and roomy, and a table drawn up before the hearth was spread for the evening meal. A great fire of pine boughs blazed in the deep-throated fireplace filling the room with fragrance and cheerfulness. The maidens ran to it with exclamations of pleasure.
“Oh!” cried Sally with a deep breath. “How pleasant and homey it is. I feel as though this afternoon were a dreadful dream, and that naught could befall us here. Dost see, Peggy? There is a quilt on the frame. ’Twill be a fine chance to teach Captain Johnson the stitches. ’Twill give him relaxation from military duty.”
“He will have small time for relaxation, I fear me,” spoke the farmer entering at this moment with Fairfax from the lean-to. “There is to be great activity in the army this summer, I hear. ’Tis to be hoped that something will be done to help us. The Jerseys have suffered greatly in the war, and Monmouth County more than the rest of the state put together.”
“We had a taste of what you are going through this afternoon,” Fairfax informed them quietly. “We were set upon by robbers, and had it not been for the opportune coming of some state dragoons you would not have had to give us welcome.”