Hour after hour crept by. Worn out with fatigue, poor Hitty dozed and
fell back on the soft hay; her child slept, too, and all her troubles
faded away in heavy unconsciousness, till she was again awakened by her
husband's grasp, to find that dawn was gathering its light roseate
fleeces in the east, and that their flight was for the present stayed at
the door of a tavern, lonely and rude enough, but welcome to Hitty as a
place of rest, if only for a moment. The sullen mistress of the house
asked no questions and offered no courtesy, but, after her guests had
eaten their breakfast, rapidly prepared, she led the way to a bedroom in
the loft, where Abner Dimock flung himself down upon the straw bed and
fell sound asleep, leaving Hitty to the undisturbed care of her child.
And occupation enough that proved; for the little fellow was fretful and
excited, so that no hour for thought was left to his anxious and timid
mother till the dinner-bell awoke her husband and took him downstairs.
She could not eat, but, begging some milk for her boy, tended, and fed,
and sung to him, till he slept; and then all the horrors of the present
and future thronged upon her, till her heart seemed to die in her
breast, and her limbs failed to support her when she would have dragged
herself out of doors for one breath of fresh air, one refreshing look at
a world untroubled and serene.

So the afternoon crept away, and as soon as night drew on the journey
was resumed. But this night was chill with the breath of a sobbing east
wind, and the dim stars foreboded rain. Hitty shivered with bitter cold,
and the boy began to cry. With a fierce curse Abner bade her stop his
disturbance, and again the poor mother had hands and heart full to
silence the still recurring sobs of the child. At last, after the
midnight cocks had ceased to send their challenges from farm to farm,
after some remote church-clocks had clanged one stroke on the damp wind,