Dulcibel | Page 3

it took like a martyr. "Oh, I wish you would misbehave a little now; I
should like to punish you severely."
They made a very pretty picture, the little jet-black mare, and the
mistress with her scarlet paragon bodice, even if the latter was entirely
too pronounced for the taste of the great majority of the inhabitants,
young and old, of Salem village.
"But how do you happen to be here?" said the girl.

"I called to see you, and found you had gone on a visit to Joseph
Putnam's. So I thought I would walk up the road and meet you coming
back."
"What a sweet creature Mistress Putnam is, and both so young for man
and wife."
"Yes, Jo married early, but he is big enough and strong enough, don't
you think so?"
"He is a worshiped man indeed. Have you met the stranger yet?"
"That Ellis Raymond? No, but I hear he is something of a popinjay in
his attire, and swelled up with the conceit that he is better than any of
us colonists."
"I do not think so," and the girl's cheek colored a deeper red. "He seems
to be a very modest young man indeed. I liked him very much."
"Oh, well, I have not seen him yet. But they say his father was a son of
Belial, and fought under the tyrant at Naseby."
"But that is all over and his widowed mother is one of us."
"Hang him, what does it matter!" Then, changing his tone, and looking
at her a little suspiciously. "Did Leah Herrick say anything to you
against me the other night at the husking?"
"I do not allow people to talk to me against my friends," replied she
earnestly.
"She was talking to you a long time I saw."
"Yes."
"It must have been an interesting subject."
"It was rather an unpleasant one to me."

"Ah!"
"She wanted me to join the 'circle' which they have just started at the
minister's house. She says that old Tituba has promised to show them
how the Indians of Barbados conjure and powwow, and that it will be
great sport for the winter nights."
"What did you say to it?"
"I told her I would have nothing to do with such things; that I had no
liking for them, and that I thought it was wrong to tamper with such
matters."
"That was all she said to you?" and the young man seemed to breathe
more freely.
The girl was sharp-witted--what girl is not so in all affairs of the
heart?--and it was now her turn. "Leah is very handsome," she said.
"Yes--everybody says so," he replied coolly, as if it were a fact of very
little importance to him, and a matter which he had thought very little
about.
Dulcibel, was not one to aim all around the remark; she came at once,
simply and directly to the point.
"Did you ever pay her any attentions?"
"Oh, no, not to speak of. What made you think of such an absurd
thing?"
"'Not to speak of'--what do you mean?"
"Oh, I kept company with her for awhile--before you came to
Salem--when we were merely boy and girl."
"There never was any troth plighted between you?"
"How foolish you are, Dulcibel! What has started you off on this

track?"
"Yourself. Answer me plainly. Was there ever any love compact
between you?"
"Oh, pshaw! what nonsense all this is!"
"If you do not answer me, I shall ask her this very evening."
"Of course there was nothing between us--nothing of any account--only
a boy and girl affair--calling her my little wife, and that kind of
nonsense."
"I think that a great deal. Did that continue up to the time I came to the
village?"
"How seriously you take it all! Remember, I have your promise,
Dulcibel."
"A promise on a promise is no promise--every girl knows that. If you
do not answer me fully and truly, Jethro, I shall ask Leah."
"Yes," said the young man desperately "there was a kind of childish
troth up to that time, but it was, as I said, a mere boy and girl affair."
"Boy and girl! You were eighteen, Jethro; and she sixteen nearly as old
as Joseph Putnam and his wife were when they married."
"I do not care. I will not be bound by it; and Leah knows it."
"You acted unfairly toward me, Jethro. Leah has the prior right. I recall
my troth. I will not marry you without her consent."
"You will not!" said the young man passionately--for well he knew that
Leah's consent would never be given.
"No, I will not!"
"Then take your troth back in welcome. In truth, I met you here this day

to tell you that. I love Leah Herrick's little