Goody Parsons, too, had long since slipped away, although she had lived to see her dearest wish fulfilled as she watched the climbing rose cover the whole grey wall of her cottage. She had told Margeret, the day before she went, that she would be glad to be in Heaven, for she knew that it was “as like her own loved Hertfordshire as the dear Lord would permit.” Samuel Skerry had vanished, no man knew whither, nor how he had carried away the great locked chest that tradition said held his wealth. Roger Bardwell had always declared that once as he was walking through the narrow street of a Dutch seaport town, he had seen the shoemaker’s dark face peer out at him through a window. There was a certain sea captain, also, who claimed to have knowledge of where Skerry was to be found, so it was through him that Roger Bardwell sent the purchase money when he bought the shoemaker’s abandoned fields and widened the bounds of Master Simon’s garden. Beyond this, Hopewell heard no real news of the vanished cobbler, although the people of the village talked of him still and wondered as to which of the various terrible punishments that he deserved had overtaken him at last. As Alisoun and Gilbert walked up to the house together a little later, they observed that Stephen had settled down to what was, for him, a very quiet game. It required a great deal of running to and fro and much laughter, but its activities were confined to the stretch of lawn nearest the big pine tree. “They seem to be at something new,” said Gilbert, as he turned toward the gate, for an errand called him to Hopewell; “where did they learn to play that game?” “I believe Amos Bardwell taught it to Stephen when he was here last month,” replied Alisoun. “What a gay time he and Stephen always have together, and how hard it is for them to part! I wish that Amos and his father did not bide in England.” “A sailor like Amos hardly abides anywhere,” smiled Gilbert. “He and I have scarcely met for years, since, when one of us is not at sea, the other is. And you must remember that it is only through Amos and his father’s having become citizens of England and not of Massachusetts, that we are able to keep even a part of our vessels upon the sea.”