To Have and To Hold | Page 3

met the world - the
bachelor world - flocking to them. Not a mile of the way but I
encountered Tom, Dick, and Harry, dressed in their Sunday bravery
and making full tilt for the city. And the boats upon the river! I have
seen the Thames less crowded."

"There was more passing than usual," I said; "but I was busy in the
fields, and did not attend. What's the lodestar?"
"The star that draws us all, - some to ruin, some to bliss ineffable, -
woman."
"Humph! The maids have come, then?"
He nodded. "There's a goodly ship down there, with a goodly lading."
"Videlicet, some fourscore waiting damsels and milkmaids, warranted
honest by my Lord Warwick," I muttered.
"This business hath been of Edwyn Sandys' management, as you very
well know," he rejoined, with some heat. "His word is good: therefore I
hold them chaste. That they are fair I can testify, having seen them
leave the ship."
"Fair and chaste," I said, "but meanly born."
"I grant you that," he answered. "But after all, what of it? Beggars must
not be choosers. The land is new and must be peopled, nor will those
who come after us look too curiously into the lineage of those to whom
a nation owes its birth. What we in these plantations need is a loosening
of the bonds which tie us to home, to England, and a tightening of those
which bind us to this land in which we have cast our lot. We put our
hand to the plough, but we turn our heads and look to our Egypt and its
fleshpots. 'T is children and wife - be that wife princess or peasant -
that make home of a desert, that bind a man with chains of gold to the
country where they abide. Wherefore, when at midday I met good
Master Wickham rowing down from Henricus to Jamestown, to offer
his aid to Master Bucke in his press of business to-morrow, I gave the
good man Godspeed, and thought his a fruitful errand and one pleasing
to the Lord."
"Amen," I yawned. "I love the land, and call it home. My withers are
unwrung."

He rose to his feet, and began to pace the greensward before the door.
My eyes followed his trim figure, richly though sombrely clad, then fell
with a sudden dissatisfaction upon my own stained and frayed apparel.
"Ralph," he said presently, coming to a stand before me, "have you
ever an hundred and twenty pounds of tobacco in hand? If not, I" -
"I have the weed," I replied. "What then?"
"Then at dawn drop down with the tide to the city, and secure for
thyself one of these same errant damsels."
I stared at him, and then broke into laughter, in which, after a space and
unwillingly, he himself joined. When at length I wiped the water from
my eyes it was quite dark, the whippoorwills had begun to call, and
Rolfe must needs hasten on. I went with him down to the gate.
"Take my advice, - it is that of your friend," he said, as he swung
himself into the saddle. He gathered up the reins and struck spurs into
his horse, then turned to call back to me: "Sleep upon my words, Ralph,
and the next time I come I look to see a farthingale behind thee!"
"Thou art as like to see one upon me," I answered.
Nevertheless, when he had gone, and I climbed the bank and re‰ntered
the house, it was with a strange pang at the cheerlessness of my hearth,
and an angry and unreasoning impatience at the lack of welcoming face
or voice. In God's name, who was there to welcome me? None but my
hounds, and the flying squirrel I had caught and tamed. Groping my
way to the corner, I took from my store two torches, lit them, and stuck
them into the holes pierced in the mantel shelf; then stood beneath the
clear flame, and looked with a sudden sick distaste upon the disorder
which the light betrayed. The fire was dead, and ashes and embers were
scattered upon the hearth; fragments of my last meal littered the table,
and upon the unwashed floor lay the bones I had thrown my dogs. Dirt
and confusion reigned; only upon my armor, my sword and gun, my
hunting knife and dagger, there was no spot or stain. I turned to gaze
upon them where they hung against the wall, and in my soul I hated the

piping times of peace, and longed for the camp fire and the call to arms.
With an impatient sigh, I swept the litter from the table, and, taking
from the shelf that held my meagre library a bundle of Master
Shakespeare's