“But thee?” she questioned loth to leave him.
“Oh, I’m used to it,” he responded airily. “Just send along that stableman though, Peggy. These sticks are heavy. And say! Is’t permitted to feed drivers of carts? There are not many rations just now in Morristown, and I’d really like to eat once more.”
“Thee shall have all thee wants,” she assured him. “But oh, John! if they should find out who thee is! Thou art mad to venture into the city.”
“If they will wait until I’ve eaten they may do their worst,” he replied with a touch of his old jauntiness. “No; I don’t mean that, for I’ve come to take you back with me. That is, if you want to go?”
“I do, I do,” she told him almost in tears.
“Then go right in,” he commanded. “Won’t your cousins suspect something if they see you talking like this to a countryman?”
“They will think I am scolding thee,” she said with a tremulous little laugh. “And truly thee needs it, John. I never saw a cord of wood piled so crookedly before in my life.”
“They’ll be glad to get wood in any shape if this weather keeps on, I’m thinking,” he made answer. “Now do go right in, Peggy. And don’t forget that stableman.”
Peggy hastened within doors, sent the man to help with the wood, and then tried to regain her usual composure by preparing a meal for Drayton.
“The poor lad,” was her mental comment a little later as she watched the young fellow stow away the food that was placed before him. “He eats as though he had had nothing all winter.”