very ill; he had had a bad rheumatic fever, and was not able to come for me yet; but he was getting better, and hoped to be able to set off before summer came. I made up my mind directly what I would do, to set off the next day as ever came, and go to him. So I went down stairs to the man as brought me the letter, and I asked him which was the road, and what were the names of the places I had to go through, and how I was to find out his settlement. I was a pretty middling scholar, so I wrote it all down from his mouth. That night I packed up my bundle, and I sold the linen and things I had bought, for I could not carry them, and I knew I should want the money. My sister-in-law lent me a little she was able to spare, and next morning I set out. I reckoned I could walk fifteen miles a-day, and that, as it was three hundred miles up the country, it would take me about three weeks to get to him. I was very tired the first day, for I had to carry my bundle on my back, and my child in my arms; but I did not care. I thought so of getting to John I hardly knew that I was tired. I found a decent little inn, and a civil woman, who made me pretty comfortable that night, and I had nothing to complain of for several days more; but after a week, or thereabouts, the country was very bare, and there were but few houses to be seen. One day I had to walk better than twenty miles before I could get taken in, and after all the place was a miserable hovel, and the woman as kept it was so old, and dirty, and smoky, and she spoke so short to me, and looked at me so sharp, that I felt frightened, and almost sorry, when, after a little haggling, she let me into the hut. It seemed to belong to her; but some men who came in after me ordered her about as if they were masters of her and all she had; and she did not think of refusing them any thing, and they swore at her terribly, and made themselves quite at home. I had got away into the inner-room when I saw them coming, and I never went back into the kitchen. The old woman seemed no ways anxious that I should. I begged her to let me lie down, and she said I might do as I would; so I tried to get some rest; but I could see these men through the chinks of the logs, and I could hear most of what they said. They drank, and they sang, and, by their way of talking, I think they led a rough sort of robber-like life; but I could not half understand what they said. At last they rolled themselves upon the floor, and went to sleep, and I went to sleep too. All my little stock of money, which was getting very low, but which was my only dependence for reaching my poor husband, was under my pillow, and I resolved I would not part with it if I could help it. In the middle of the night my child began to cry; I felt sure these strange men would wake and rob me, and perhaps murder me too. I heard one move, and I could see him sit up, rub his eyes, stretch himself, and he wondered what the noise could be; but I managed to pacify the child, and he settled himself again. To be sure, I was glad when I heard him breathe quite hard! I did not sleep any more that night, and by daybreak the hunters (for they had guns, and powder-pouches, and bags-so I suppose they were hunters) were astir, and left the hut. I asked the old woman who they were, and which way they were likely to take, but she did not like being questioned; and so, when I thought they had been gone about an hour, I set out again on my lonesome journey. milk, and let me share her bed. They would have given me enough to pay my way for the next two days if they had had it to give; but I was forced to ask charity again that night, but it did not seem to give me such a choking in the throat as it did the first time; and I thought how soon we lose our spirit when we get low in the world, and how easy it is to go on from bad to worse! The next night I hoped to get to my husband. They told me to keep along the banks of a great river on my left, where there was something of a path, but 'twas so overgrown with the long rank grass 'twas not easy to find. The new settlement was near the river-side, for the trees, which settlers cut some way higher up, drifted down the river till they came to this place, where the ground was particular rich, and then they pulled them ashore, and built themselves log-houses. There were about seven families together, as they told me, and my husband's house was the farthest but one. How my poor heart did beat all the way I went; Ilonged so to get there, and I dreaded it so too. I walked on and on, and still I saw no people, nor no huts, nor no fields, and I began to think I must have come wrong, for though it was all open and flat, I could not see very far before me, for the grass was long, and the rushes very tall, sometimes, by the river-side. Of all the day's journeys I had come, this did seem to me the longest; but I suppose 'twas only because I was so impatient to get to the end of it. I looked at the sun, and it was not above half-way down. Just then there was a rise in the road, and I could see some smoke, and the roofs of some low huts, and some little patches of ground that were cultivated, and I strained my eyes to try and make out the last but one; I don't know how I got over the ground, but I soon did reach the first house, and I saw a child at play, and I asked him which was John Roberts's. I could hardly breathe while he answered, He lives out yonder.' He lives! and when I heard him say that, I first knew I had been afraid of never seeing John again. "That day the road lay through a great forest of very tall trees, taller than any trees we have here. I never did feel so lonesome before; there was not a creature to be seen anywhere; and the tall trees made the road so dreary, and it was all dark and hollow each side; for in those great woods the trees stand clear of each other, and there is no underwood, nor bushes, nor briers, but the boles go up straight, and the branches meet at top, and one may go miles and miles, and never see the blue sky over one's head. There was no telling what might come out from those dismal hollows, and I kept looking round every minute, and trying to see into them, but 'twas impossible: I could see the trunks of the trees for a little way, and then 'twas all as black as night. It made one feel so alone, and yet one did not know what might be near one; and I thought what would become of me if I was benighted in this dreary place, and I thought of the wild Indians, and of the bears, and of my poor innocent babe: but then I thought again of my husband on his sick-bed, and I took courage. "It was past the middle of the day, and the sun had sunk some way below those tall dark trees, when I sat down to rest myself, and to drink from a clear stream by the road-side. I was wondering how much farther it could be to the end of the forest, where I had been told I should find something of a decent hut, when I was startled at hearing voices and the report of a gun; and presently three of the men who had passed the night in the old woman's hovel came out from among the gloomy trees on the other side. "They looked surprised to see me, and came straight up to B2 me. I don't know how it was, but when the time came I did not seem so timid as I thought I should. I remembered how poor I was, and it could not be no object to anybody to rob me, and I knew I was doing my duty in going to my husband, and I thought God would protect me. I sat quite still, and did not tremble nor shake. One of them asked me how I came there! so I told him the truth, and spoke quite civil, and yet, as it were, bold and steady, that I was walking from Halifax to my husband at the far settlement. So another of the men said, quite sharp- If you have got a husband, he had better keep a sharper look-out after such a tight lass as you are.' "The first man said You have got a long journey before you, my girl.' "And I answered, 'Yes, sir; but I have got safe through more than half of it, and I hope, with the blessing of God, to get safe through the rest of it to my husband, to nurse him in his illness.' ""Oh! he's ill, that's it,' said the second. "Well, you can't be travelling all this way without money,' says the third, who had not spoken yet. "Come, come, poor girl,' interrupted the first, and gave a wink to the last speaker, 'we won't hinder your journey any longer: you had better push on, or you'll be in the dark.' And he took the other by the arm, and he seemed to persuade them both to go away; and when I saw them go off into the woods again, I thanked God for his goodness, and thought he was indeed a Father to the fatherless, and that he never did desert them as put their trust in Him in the time of their need. "I hugged my baby close, and quite forgot how tired I had been a little while before, and walked and ran till it was nearly dark, when the trees grew thinner, and I thought I could see lights glimmer in the distance. I made all the haste I could, and at last I got to a small settlement of half a dozen loghouses. I stopped at the first door, and I never felt so happy as when I saw a light, and a fire, and a woman's face again. She had a child in her arms too, and I felt quite safe. "Next day I was very tired, and the woman at the little inn wished me to stay all day, and rest myself; but when I was walking and toiling, I did not feel so much about John: the moment I was still, I thought how ill he might be, and I could not bear to keep quiet. Besides, the woman's husband was going part of the same road, to make a bargain about some "Iran as well as I could to the hut. It looked wretched, and half-finished; the door was ajar-I pushed it open-there was nobody in the kitchen-I heard no noise-I listened-I did not dare step on. Just then my child cried, and a voice from within said, in a hollow tone, Who's there?" I ran into the bedroom, and there lay my husband, sick, pale, and weak, but it was my husband aliye, and all seemed well." "Oh, nurse," exclaimed Lucy, "I never heard any thing half so interesting in my life, Poor souls! and how was your husband? He got well?" |