Now, Faith, I acknowledge the debt of thy kindness, and let there
be no more cutting speech between us. Thy tongue often pricketh more
sorely than the Indian's arrow."
"Whose fault is it that old acquaintance hath sometimes been overlooked,
in new conversations? Thou knowest that, wooed by proper speech, no maiden
in the Colony is wont to render gentler answer. Dost feel uneasiness in
thine arm, Dudley?"
"'Tis not tickling with a straw, to drive a flint-headed arrow to the
bone! I forgive thee the matter of too much discourse with the trooper,
and all the side-cuts of thy over-ambling tongue, on conditions that----"
"Out upon thee, brawler! wouldst be prating here the night long on
pretence of a broken skin, and the savage at our gates? A fine character
will the Madam render of thy deeds, when the other youths have beaten back
the Indian, and thou loitering among the buildings!"
The discomfited borderer was about to curse in his heart the versatile
humor of his mistress, when he saw, by a side-glance, that ears which had
no concern in the subject, had liked to have shared in the matter of their
discourse.
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