United States or Seychelles ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Herman Mordaunt then spoke more fully of his own plans for the summer expressed his happiness at knowing that Dirck and myself were to be what he called his neighbours though, on a more exact computation, it was ascertained, that the nearest boundaries of the two patents, that of Ravensnest, and that of Mooseridge, lay quite fourteen miles apart, with a dense and virgin forest between them.
The object of Dirck and myself, in visiting the north, was no secret; and, it was generally understood, that we were to go to Mooseridge; but we did not know, ourselves, that Herman Mordaunt had an estate so near us. This intelligence, as has been said, I now ascertained, was as new to Bulstrode as it was to myself.
For the moment, Dirck really had a commanding and animated air. "Why, Anneke is one of the prettiest girls in the colony!" my friend had exclaimed. "And your cousin?" "My second cousin. Her mother's father and my mother's mother were brother and sister."
Nevertheless, Dirck was a sterling fellow, as true as steel, as brave as a game-cock, and as honest as noon-day light. Jason was a very different sort of person, in many essentials. In figure, he was also tall, but he was angular, loose-jointed and swinging slouching would be the better word, perhaps.
I saw a quick, surprised start in Dirck; but I felt such a twinge myself, that there was little opportunity to inquires into the state of my friend's feelings, at this coarse, but unexpected remark. "Have you any particular reason, Mr. Newcome, for; venturing such an opinion?" I asked, a little sternly. "Come, don't let us, out here in the highway, begin to mister one another.
Instead of quitting the tavern at daylight, therefore, as had been our practice previously, we remained until after breakfast, having recourse to our trunks in the mean time. Dirck, Jason and myself, had provided ourselves with fur caps for the journey, with ear-laps and other contrivances for keeping oneself warm.
Dirck did not answer, until we had trotted twenty rods; for by this time the pipe was at work, and the moment that smoke was seen he kept his eye on it, until he saw a bright light in front of his nose. "The first thing will be to find it, Corny. When a patent is signed and delivered, then you must send forth some proper person to find the land it covers.
All of us had overcoats well trimmed with furs, mine and Dirck's being really handsome, with trimmings of marten, while those of our companion were less showy and expensive. On a consultation, Dirck and I decided that it was better taste to enter the town in traveller's dresses, than to enter it in any other, and we merely smartened up a little, in order to appear as gentlemen.
As for Dirck, younger than myself, and diffident, as well as slow by nature, he kept himself altogether in the back-ground, conversing, most of the time, with Herman Mordaunt, on the subject of farming.
Even Dirck could not advance to her aid, though he saw and comprehended the imminent risk ran by the being he loved best in the world; but Dirck was always so slow! I must do Jason the credit to say that he behaved well, though so situated as to be of no real use.
Word Of The Day