Mighty soon I found that I was not, however, and then, in the hour for my
daily constitutional, which I never missed, rain or shine, I turned over
the situation and resolved to approach Jenny on the subject and invite a
clean breast of it.
There was a woodman's path ran on the high ground behind Oakshotts, and
here I seldom failed to take an hour's walk daily for the sake of health.
Up and down I'd go under the trees in the lonely woods, and mark the signs
of nature and rest my mind from the business of the house. And sometimes
Jenny would come along with me, but oftener I went alone, because our
regular afternoon out gave me the opportunity for her company and she
couldn't often break loose other times.
There was an ancient woodstack on the path hid deep in undergrowth of
laurels and spruce fir, and not seldom in summer I'd smoke a pipe with my
back against it; but oftener I'd tramp up and down past it, where it
heaved up beside the narrow way. They was always going to pull it down,
but there never rose no call for wood and it was let bide year after
year--a very picturesque and ancient object.
During an autumn day it was that I went there, with the larches turned to
gold and the leaf flying from the oaks and shining copper-red on the beech
trees. And I resolved once for all to challenge Jenny upon her troubles,
because if her future husband couldn't throw no light on 'em and scour 'em
away, he must be less than the man I took him for.
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