I asked him what he said.
"Just that he was the happy man to have kind hearts to weep for him. A
fine thing for a landless, childless fellow like me to say! But it's
gospel truth, Andrew. I told him that his bairns would be great folks
some day, and that their proudest boast would be that their father had
ridden on this errand. Oh, and all the rest of the easy consolations.
If it had been me, I would not have been muckle cheered. It's well I
never married, for I would not have had the courage to leave my
fireside."
We were now getting into a new and far lovelier country. The heavy
forests and swamps which line the James and the York had gone, and
instead we had rolling spaces of green meadowland, and little hills
which stood out like sentinels of the great blue chain of mountains
that hung in the west. Instead of the rich summer scents of the
Tidewater, we had the clean, sharp smell of uplands, and cool winds
relieved the noontide heat. By and by we struck the Rapidan, a water
more like our Scots rivers, flowing in pools and currents, very
different from the stagnant reaches of the Pamunkey. We were joined for
a little bit by two men from Stafford county, who showed us the paths
that horses could travel.
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