"Yea Captain! Put not thy wit to further distress, good friend, for it needs not; I see all and more than all thou couldst tell me. Go thy way to the Fort, and look over thy dear guns and wait until thou seest--what thou wilt see." And with a little push the young matron thrust her guest out of the open door of the scullery, and hasted to finish her own labors. Almost an hour passed and the Captain of the Armies of New England had uncovered and examined and sighted and petted each gun in his armament more than once; had considered the range of the saker, the minion, the falcon, and the bases; and had stood gazing blankly at the whitened skull of Wituwamat above the gate of the Fort until the wrens who nested there began to fly restlessly in and out, fancying that the captain planned an invasion of their territory. He still stood in this posture when the rustle of a footfall among the dried herbage reached his quick ear, and turning he confronted Barbara, whose down-dropt eyes hid the gleam of amusement the sight of his melancholy attitude had kindled in their depths. "Priscilla says that you have returned home from the fishing because you were but poorly, cousin, and she would have me come and ask if you cared to speak with the chirurgeon who is going afield presently." "So chill, so frozen, Barbara? Is 't so a kinswoman should speak with one ill at ease both in mind and body?" "I came but as a messenger, sir, and venture not to presume upon any claim of kindred to one who joins the blood of Percivale to that of Standish." "Nay now, nay now, Barbara!--Here, come to the shaded side of the Fort, and sit you down where we two sat"-- "We two sat on the bench without your door the last parley that we had, good cousin." "'Gentle tongues aye give the sharpest wounds,' and it is thou who provest the proverb true, Barbara." "Nay, I'll sit me down and listen with all meekness to what thou hast to say, Captain Standish." "Thanks for even so much courtesy, Barbara, for I have sought thee to say that I deserve none at thy hands. I, to whose protection and comforting thou hast come across the sea, have treated thee as no base-born churl hath warrant for treating the meanest of woman-kind. I, to pride myself upon gentle blood and knightly training, and then throw insult and taunt upon a woman's unshielded head! Nay, Barbara, had any man three days agone forecast my doing such a thing, I had hurled the lie in his teeth, and haply crammed it down with Gideon's hilt. Nay--the good sword may well be ashamed of his master; well may I look for him to shiver in my grasp when next I draw him"--