A Colonial Wooing
suffering sank into the background. "I should regret the necessity but not the nature of the step," John said to himself, with a fixedness of purpose ringing in every word; and then, leaving his resting-place, he turned at right angles to the path he had been following, and, pushing through a weedy tangle of vines, dwarfed shrubbery, and sprouting weeds, he came in a few moments to the bank of the creek, and found, as he expected, a large canoe with three paddles moored near the muddy shore.
"He said I would find what I wanted at the boat," John muttered to himself; and stealthily and silently as an Indian on the war-path—here we have a professed Friend as one—he cut a long, slender switch, but not too yielding, as he held it at full length over the water. Withdrawing it, he laid it lengthwise in the canoe, and using his outer coat, which he had taken off, as a shield, he struck fire from his flint, kindled a bit of tinder, and then lit a small lantern, which he securely tied to the tapering end of the long pole. This he covered carefully with his
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