Americans -- England -- Fiction; West Country (England) -- Fiction
To move her household goods from the hut by Siward's Cross
was no great matter for Lovey Lee. A donkey carried all and
found the burden light. The things about which her life's interest
centred were buried deep in Hangman's Hollow, and her only
hesitation, when the great enterprise at the War Prison was
broken to her, arose out of the knowledge that she must now
abide three miles further from her treasure-house. To this fact,
however, the old woman grew reconciled, when she considered
the nature of the promised reward. She settled down beneath
the Prison walls; and now not the least of her grievances was the
enormous appetite of Mr. James Knapps. He worked exceedingly
hard and insisted upon having wholesome food and plenty
of it.
"We're not all built like you, ma'am, ter do our stint of work
on ditch-water and shell-snails," he explained. "Victuals and
drink I'll have; else I must grumble ter them over the wall. I
can't dig my best on offal."
There fell a morning when John Lee visited his grandmother,
and she saw by his face that a climax had come in his fortunes.
He was gloomy and sad, yet of his own affairs he said nothing
until Lovey mentioned them.
"I'm on a private errand," he said, "and since 'tis too early
yet to see the prisoners, I thought I'd drop in and learn how
you're faring."
She suspected that he was sent to spy by his master.
"I keep body and soul together, an' that's all I ever shall do,"
she answered, little thinking that John Lee had counted her
guineas but a few weeks before. "Even so I have to thank they
Yankees to the Prison."
He marvelled at her cunning.
"Do you hear anything of that fine gentleman, Master Cecil
Stark?" he inquired.
"Ah, you was all in love with him to Fox Farm, I hear. I wish
there was more like him."
John did not answer, and his grandmother jeered.
"I see how 'tis! Your nose be out of joint. What did I tell
you, Jack? Broken hearts--broken fiddlesticks! Ban't the
wench's heart as have broke, anyhow. So her throwed you over
for a properer man?"
"No, by God! But----"
"You'm minded to let her off her bargain? Then the bigger
fool you!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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