But I complain not of the want of custom, as the Ensign would never
quit the bar and his gossip, to go into the mountain-lots, so long as
there was one to fill his ears with the marvels of the old countries, or
even to discourse of the home-stirrings of the colonies themselves."
"Thou speakest lightly, Faith, of one who merits thy respect and
thy duty."
The eye of the former studied the meek countenance of her from whom this
reproof came, with an intenseness and a melancholy that showed her
thoughts were on other matters, and then, as it suddenly recalled to what
had passed, she resumed--
"Truly, what with duty to the man as a husband, and respect to him as an
officer of the colony Madam Heathcote, the task is not one of easy
bearing. If the King's representative had given the colors to my brother
Reuben, and left the Dudley with the halberd in his hand, the preferment
would have been ample for one of his qualities, and all the better for the
credit of the settlement."
"The Governor distributed his favor according to the advice of men
competent to distinguish merit," said Content.
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