"Not unless it thickens some." "Pray it does." "Nay, it better hold off a while or we'll lose these sled-tracks and direction with 'em...." "I cursed old Anna when she was holding me. She--I mean Grandmother--made me wash my mouth with vinegar, then I must sit not moving all morning. Then they all went to meeting but Jonas, who locked me in a closet so he could mind his chores. Damn them all, I say God-damn them!" "Hush, Ru! Grandmother only thought----" "I say she doesn't think. I say she hath no heart at all, and your mouth'll be scarred all your days like Sam Belding's head." "It will not--and don't speak so loud. Could be houses back of those trees, it's too dark to be sure." "I will be quiet, Ben, but I say I cannot forgive her nor I will not, and I'll sooner die in the snow than ever go back in that house." "We can't go back, that's sure. But Ru, to her we were--don't you understand?--sinful. And I _was_, too--I ought never to have spoken to her so. I lost my head somehow." "But Mother, or Father, or anyone with a heart, would have forgiven anything you said at such a time. I cursed you, when I was out of my wits. You forgave at once, when I reminded you you could scarce remember it." "What you said _was_ nothing. What I said to Grandmother was--well, too much somehow. There's a strangeness--let's not think of it. We need all our wits to find the way here.... Can you make out the sled-marks? My eyes don't feel just right." "Yes, I can see them. Ben, art thou fevered? Thy hand is too hot." "I don't think so. I was hungry, and the food you brought will hold me up." "They let me eat heavy at supper, and I did so, knowing we might have a chance--Ben, are you having trouble walking?" "No, no, I slipped, that was all. It's from fretting all day in that room and doing nothing. My head's clearing already." "You were to have a flogging in the morning. It would have been today, but the minister was ill. He preached for Lecture Day, but then went home with a sore throat. Grandmother and old Anna were talking of it when they came back, Anna saying the flogging should be in the public square, but Grandmother said it would be at the house, and first the minister should instruct you and pray. I say let them pray for their own salvation." "Ru----" "I'll be quiet. But I make no peace with them, never." "The snow's stopped?" "It's less here under the trees." "Trees? We're under--oh yes, I see." "Ben--thou didst not know it?" "I was keeping my eyes on the ground, to find those sled-marks." "Oh ... I was thinking and planning all evening. They put me in an attic room, next the Lloyds, I was forced to wait till they went a-futtering and then a-snoring.... Ben, if it's a hundred miles to Roxbury--we can do ten miles, maybe fifteen, in a day. You've got your knife, and I stole one from the kitchen--better than nothing. We can find something. The food will last a few days anyway." "We'll get to Roxbury." "Wish to rest a while?"