From Kingdom to Colony

in reaching the town proper, without going around the Neck, by the open seaway; and some distance from the boat-h

ere now gone, although a noble wood still partially environed it. And beyond this were sloping hills and grassy meado

rds of Joseph Devereux, th

lder portion. And before it, broader of expanse and to the vision than in the early days, stretched

he golden-tissued air. But from the vine-draped door of the low stone dairy came sounds less inviting, uttered by Aun

id sister Lettice, who was sitting on the porch before the open door, w

ipe; and crouched on the stone step, her curly head resti

e sacred innocence of her childish nature. She was impetuous, laughter-loving, and somewha

as laid in his strong arms,-vigorous as those of a man half his own age. And he was looking into

re a never hard heart, had made him dotingly fond of those lef

or much the same reason. Both girls had been carefully trained by their fathers; and Aunt Penine, at Nicholson Broughton's request

nd Aunt Penine lectured her niece unceasingly, while

od butter-maker; ye beat it so, the grain will be broke. Why cannot ye take it this way

sure to go to her brother-in-law with complainings of his daughter's disrespectful tongue, and it would end in Dot being persuaded by her father to beg Aunt Penine's pardon, which she would do i

ung herself; and this made her all the more unbending in her disapproval o

so weak) had given way to the spareness of middle age. Her hair, still plentiful, was of a dull, lustreless black; her complexion sallow, with

brown arms were bare above the elbows, where she had rolled her sleeves. She well knew that her brother-in-la

m in front of her on the grass, where, obedient to Dorothy's call, they

her as she walked along, "do you know that the last t

between question and answer, puffing his pipe meanwhile, while the fingers

ed, as she now stood on the stone flagging in front of the veranda, he

ely, and as if thinki

I know not how many cows there be to draw from. There was less milk by twenty pans, this e'en; and I was suspecting the new maid we've taken from over Oakum Bay way of making

reprovingly. "'T is a queer fashion, it seems to me, for a Christian woman to be so ready as you ever seem to be for t

o him. He thanked the girl with the same courtesy he would have shown an utter stranger

shion, and confined by a black ribbon. About his throat was wrapped snowy linen lawn, fine as a cobweb, and woven on his own hand-lo

that came up to meet the breeches of dark cl

oftness in his manner, very far removed from provincial brusqueness, and belonging r

f temper,-this due, perhaps, to his fewer years. But father and son were known alike