but she did not die until after Mistress Cross had recovered from her
fever, and Mr Stewart had regained his speech and a small portion of his
wits. Mistress Cross was in a fair way to be despoiled of all her rightful
belongings, for she brought not so much as a clean smock away with her
from her husband's house, and there was there in charge an insolent rascal
named Rab, who, when I demanded the keys and his mistress's chattels,
essayed to turn me away. I lectured him upon his behavior in such terms
that he slunk off like a whipped dog, and presently sent to me a servant
from whom I received what I came for. She would otherwise have obtained
nothing, for, obstinate as she is in some matters, she is a timid soul at
best, and stands in mortal fear of Rab's malevolence.

"Mr. Stewart's mind is still in a sad way. He is childish beyond belief,
and talks about you as if you were a lad again, and then speaks of foreign
matters of which we know nothing, so long past are they, as if they were
still proceeding. In bodily health, he seems now somewhat stronger. I
knitted him some woollen stockings, but he would not wear them, saying
that they scratched his legs. Mistress Cross might have persuaded him out
of this nonsense, but did not see fit to do so. She also humors him in the
matter of taking him to the Papist church at Johnstown whenever the roads
are open, he having become highly devotional in his second childhood. I
was vigorously opposed to indulging this idea of his, which is almost as
sinful in her as it is superstitious and silly in him; but she would go
her own gait, and so she may for all of me.

"She insisted, too, on having one of Adam Wemple's girls in to do the work
when your aunt fell ill. I recommended to her the widow of Dirck Tappan, a
worthy and pious woman who could not sleep if there was so much as a speck
of dust on the floor under her bed, but she would not listen to me, saying
that she liked Moll Wemple and wanted her, and that she did not like Dame