Whether thou comest to tarry a
night, a week, a month, or even for a still longer season, as a brother in
care, and I doubt not one who striveth for the right, I bid thee welcome."
The stranger thanked his host, by a slow inclination of the head; but the
gaze, which began to partake a little of the look of recognition, was
still too earnest and engrossing to admit of verbal reply. On the other
hand, though the old man had scanned the broad and rusty beaver, the
coarse and well-worn doublet, the heavy boots and, in short, the whole
attire of his visiter, in which he saw no vain conformity to idle
fashions to condemn, it was evident that personal recollection had not the
smallest influence in quickening his hospitality.
"Thou hast arrived happily," continued the Puritan: "had night
overtaken thee in the forest, unless much practised in the shifts of
our young woodsmen, hunger, frost, and a supperless bed of brush, would
have given thee motive to think more of the body than is either
profitable or seemly."
The stranger might possibly have known the embarrassment of these several
hardships; for the quick and unconscious glance he threw over his soiled
dress, should have betrayed some familiarity already, with the privations
to which his host alluded.
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