Page:Milady at Arms (1937).pdf/84

 that for shrewd thinking and planning, lad?" he demanded.

Jerry shook his head. He did not speak, however, and Master Todd now saw the clutching fingers upon his wounded arm and the lines of pain upon his face that showed white beneath the tan and dirt.

"Here be another patient, Moll!" called the farmer to his wife. Mistress Todd glanced up at her husband's approach. "Is the Mary-patient asleep?" he asked whimsically.

"Aye," the mother nodded. Rising, she carried the little girl up to her trundle bed and returned to set to work with kind fingers upon the young soldier's arm.

"Where found ye Mary?" she asked presently. Sally drew near for his answer.

"She was curled up inside a hollow tree-stump, so sound asleep she did not once hear us calling," answered Jerry. "That very same stump the saucy chipmunk sat upon and chattered at us, Sally," he glanced with an irrepressible grin at the girl. "The little maid must ha' found her hiding place before the storm, for she was dry as toast i' there!"

Both parents' eyes were very tender; but Mistress Todd said slowly: "We must watch the tiny lass after this 'til she be older, Samuel. They do say there be quicksand in the swamp. I know I've ever had a horror o' the place. And then, to think