CHAPTER III.
I know each lane, and every alley green,
Dingle or bushy dell of this wild wood,
And every bosky bourne from side to side;
My daily walks and ancient neighbourhood.
MILTON.
Fleda and her grandfather had but just risen from a tolerably early breakfast the next morning, when the two young sportsmen entered the room.
"Ha!" said Mr. Ringgan, "I declare! you're stirring betimes. Come five or six miles this morning a'ready. Well that's the stuff to make sportsmen of. Off for the woodcock, hey? And I was to go with you and show you the ground? I declare I don't know how in the world I can do it this morning, I'm so very stiff ten times as bad as I was yesterday. I had a window open in my room last night, I expect that must have been the cause. I don't see how I could have overlooked it; but I never gave it a thought, till this morning I found myself so lame I could hardly get out of bed. I am very sorry, upon my word!"
"I am very sorry we must lose your company, Sir," said the young Englishman, "and for such a cause; but as to the rest, I dare say your directions will guide us sufficiently."
"I don't know about that," said the old gentleman. " It is pretty hard to steer by a chart that is only laid down in the imagination. I set out once to go in New York from one side of the city over into the other, and the first thing I knew I found myself travelling along half a mile out of town. I had to get in a stage and ride back, and take a fresh start. Out at the West they say, when you are in the woods you can tell which is north by the moss growing on that side of the trees; but if you're lost, you'll be pretty apt to find the moss grows on all sides of the trees. I couldn't make out any waymarks at all, in such a labyrinth of brick corners. Well, let us see if I tell you now it is so easy to mistake one hill for another Fleda, child, you put on your sun-bonnet, and take these gentlemen back to the twenty-acre lot, and from there you can tell 'em how to go, so I guess they wont mistake it."
"By no means!" said Mr. Carleton; "we cannot give her so much trouble; it would be buying our pleasure at much too dear a rate."
"Tut, tut," said the old gentleman; "she thinks nothing of trouble, and the walk 'll do her good. She'd like to be out all day, I believe, if she had any one to go along with; but I'm rather a stupid companion for such a spry little pair of feet. Fleda, look here; when they get to the lot, they can find their own way after that. You know where the place is where your cousin Seth shot so many woodcock last year, over in Mr. Hurlbut's land; when you get to the big lot you must tell these gentlemen to go straight over the hill, not Squire Thornton's hill, but mine, at the back of the lot. They must go straight over it, till they come to cleared land on the other side; then they must keep along by the edge of the wood, to the right, till they come to the brook; they must cross the brook, and follow up the opposite bank, and they'll know the ground when they come to it; or they don't deserve to. Do you understand? Now run and get your hat, for they ought to be off."
Fleda went, but neither her step nor her look showed any great willingness to the business.
"I am sure, Mr. Ringgan," said Mr. Carleton, "your little granddaughter has some reason for not wishing to take such a long walk this morning. Pray allow us to go without her."