"O my beautiful one!" He took her hands. "What was it you 'told them' back there this morning, Vesty, before we started?"
"You are cruel! O Note!"
He drew her to him. Her lips would not tell. Her Basin eyes, that he was gazing mercilessly into, betrayed her.
"Good child! sweet child! with my strong right arm, and a willingness for all toil and patience and endeavor, and all my soul's love, I thee endow." He kissed her solemnly.
"Love, love, love," chanted in ecstasy a thrush from the dim recesses of the wood.
V
COLUMBUS AND THE EGG, AND LOT'S WIFE
"I often thinks o' Columbus and the egg. All them big folks in Spain was settin' areound, ye know, ta'ntin' of him, and sayin' as how an egg couldn't be made to sot.
"So Columbus, he took one up and give her a tunk, pretty solid, deown onto the table. 'There!' says he; 'you stay sot,' says he, 'and keep moderate a spall,' says he. 'Forced-to-go never gits far,' says he.