Page:A Colonial Wooing.djvu/159



in the day, while a chilling fog rested over the landscape and the candles were yet burning in the kitchen of the Watson homestead, a negro brought a horse to the door, saddled, and with a leathern pack also upon the horse's back; and after waiting for a few moments he was relieved of his charge, and Matthew Watson, mounting the patient beast, turned its head towards the public road and was soon out of sight. His destination was Burlington. The road was a long and lonely one, and the recent thawing weather had made the way so muddy and yielding that it would be well towards night before he arrived at that flourishing town by the river. Matthew's purpose was, if possible, to secure passage for Ruth on one of the two ships that had been lying there all winter; and having transacted that important matter,