The Lady And the Pirate

ate, so promptly and so gravely that again I had much to do to refrain from sudden mirth. "Why then, look ye," I continued. "The sun is sinking beneath the wave, and the good ship rides steady at her anchor. Meantime men must eat! and yonder castle amid the forest offers booty. What say ye if we pass within the wood, and see what we may find of worth to souls bold as ours?" '"Tis well!" answered L'Olonnois; and I could see assent in Lafitte's eyes. In truth I could discover no great preparations for a long voyage in the open hold of the Sea Rover, and doubted not that both captain and crew by this time were hungry. Odd crumbs of crackers and an empty sardine can might be all very well at the edge ofthe village of Pausaukee (I judged they could have come no greater distance, some twelve or fifteen miles); but they do not serve for so long a journey as lies between Pausaukee and the Spanish Main. They rose as I did, and we passed beyond the clump of tall birches, along the edge of my mowing meadow, and through the gate which closes my woodland path?to me the loveliest of all wood- trails, so gentle and so silent is it always, and so fringed, seasonably, with ferns and flowers. Thus, presently, we saw the blue smoke rising above my lodge, betokening to me that my Japanese factotum, Hiroshimi, now -had my dinner under way. To me, it was my customary abode, my home these three years; but they beside me saw not the rambling expanse of my leisurely log ma...