human
Ah, what happened to the day?
gpt
Ben, hush! We mustn't be heard talking in the street....
human
Right, here, Ru. Up the hill and east....
gpt
That might be the last house, you think?
human
Hope so.
gpt
The day was a bad dream, Ben. Take this--you ha'n't eaten all day. Got another half-loaf under my shirt, and a chunk I cut from a ham I found in the shed, all I could carry.... Think this'll cover our tracks?
human
Not unless it thickens some.
gpt
Pray it does.
human
Nay, it better hold off a while or we'll lose these sled-tracks and direction with 'em....
gpt
I cursed old Anna when she was holding me. She--I mean Grandmother--made me wash my mouth with vinegar, then I must sit not moving all morning. Then they all went to meeting but Jonas, who locked me in a closet so he could mind his chores. Damn them all, I say God-damn them!
human
Hush, Ru! Grandmother only thought----
gpt
I say she doesn't think. I say she hath no heart at all, and your mouth'll be scarred all your days like Sam Belding's head.
human
It will not--and don't speak so loud. Could be houses back of those trees, it's too dark to be sure.
gpt
I will be quiet, Ben, but I say I cannot forgive her nor I will not, and I'll sooner die in the snow than ever go back in that house.
human
We can't go back, that's sure. But Ru, to her we were--don't you understand?--sinful. And I _was_, too--I ought never to have spoken to her so. I lost my head somehow.
gpt
But Mother, or Father, or anyone with a heart, would have forgiven anything you said at such a time. I cursed you, when I was out of my wits. You forgave at once, when I reminded you you could scarce remember it.
human
What you said _was_ nothing. What I said to Grandmother was--well, too much somehow. There's a strangeness--let's not think of it. We need all our wits to find the way here.... Can you make out the sled-marks? My eyes don't feel just right.
gpt
Yes, I can see them. Ben, art thou fevered? Thy hand is too hot.
human
I don't think so. I was hungry, and the food you brought will hold me up.
gpt
They let me eat heavy at supper, and I did so, knowing we might have a chance--Ben, are you having trouble walking?
human
No, no, I slipped, that was all. It's from fretting all day in that room and doing nothing. My head's clearing already.
gpt
You were to have a flogging in the morning. It would have been today, but the minister was ill. He preached for Lecture Day, but then went home with a sore throat. Grandmother and old Anna were talking of it when they came back, Anna saying the flogging should be in the public square, but Grandmother said it would be at the house, and first the minister should instruct you and pray. I say let them pray for their own salvation.
human
Ru----
gpt
I'll be quiet. But I make no peace with them, never.
human
The snow's stopped?
gpt
It's less here under the trees.
human
Trees? We're under--oh yes, I see.
gpt
Ben--thou didst not know it?
human
I was keeping my eyes on the ground, to find those sled-marks.
gpt
Oh ... I was thinking and planning all evening. They put me in an attic room, next the Lloyds, I was forced to wait till they went a-futtering and then a-snoring.... Ben, if it's a hundred miles to Roxbury--we can do ten miles, maybe fifteen, in a day. You've got your knife, and I stole one from the kitchen--better than nothing. We can find something. The food will last a few days anyway.
human
We'll get to Roxbury.
gpt
Wish to rest a while?
human
I think I'd best not, Ru, unless--art thou tired?
gpt
I'll never tire. And then the Spice Islands?
human
Ben, he said,
gpt
Where, Ru? I can't find it.
human
Somewhere ahead....
gpt
I told you, Ben. There she rides. Ben was smiling.
human
Ben--all's well?... I did right? We could not have stayed, and thou to be flogged, maybe put in the stocks.
gpt
The stocks, was it?
human
Yes, old Anna was yattering about that too when they came home from the sermon, and Grandmother never said her nay.
gpt
Of course thou'st done right.... They'll search. That snow wasn't enough to hide anything.
human
No.... We've walked more than an hour--must have done five miles.
gpt
We can walk another five.
human
No Inj'an'll ever surprise you, Ben. Swoonds, you could look at a squirrel while the little bugger jumps from one branch to the next, and tell me its age and gender, and if she be female whether she got little 'uns.