My dispositions
completed, the thing was in the hands of God, and I was free to go my
own road. Mocking-birds and thrushes cried in the thickets, squirrels
flirted across the path, and now and then a shy deer fled before us.
There come moments to every man when he is thankful to be alive, and
every breath drawn is a delight; so at that hour I praised my Maker for
His good earth, and for sparing me to rejoice in it.
Grey had met me with a certain shyness; but as the sun rose and the
land grew bright he, too, lost his constraint, and fell into the same
happy mood. Soon we were smiling at each other in the frankest
comradeship, we two who but the other day had carried ourselves like
game-cocks. He had forgotten his fine manners and his mincing London
voice, and we spoke of the outland country of which he knew nothing,
and of the hunting of game of which he knew much, exchanging our
different knowledges, and willing to learn from each other. Long ere we
had reached York Ferry I had found that there was much in common
between the Scots trader and the Virginian cavalier, and the chief
thing we shared was youth.
Mine, to be sure, was more in the heart, while Grey wore his open and
fearless. He plucked the summer flowers and set them in his hat.
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