Chapter 20

"His hand was stay'd--he knew not why;
'Twas a presence breathed around--
A pleading from the deep-blue sky,
And up from the teeming ground.
It told of the care that lavish'd had been
In sunshine and in dew--
Of the many things that had wrought a screen
When peril round it grew."

Mrs. Seba Smith.

The desertions gave not only the captain, but his great support and
auxiliary, the serjeant, the gravest apprehensions. A disposition of
that nature is always contagious, men abandoning a failing cause much
as rats are known to quit a sinking ship. It is not a matter of
surprise, therefore, that the distrust which accompanied the unexpected
appearance of the Tuscarora, became associated with this falling off in
the loyalty of the garrison, in the minds of the two old soldiers.

"I do think, your honour," said Joyce, as they entered the court
together, "that we may depend on O'Hearn, and Jamie, and Strides. The
latter, as a matter of course, being a corporal, or serjeant as he
calls himself; and the two first, as men who have no ties but such as
would be likely to keep them true to this family. But here is the
corporal to speak for himself."

As this was said, corporal Strides, as the serjeant persisted in
terming Joel, on the ground that being but one step higher himself, the
overseer could justly claim no rank of greater pretension, approached
the captain, taking care to make the military salute which Joyce had
never succeeded before in extracting from him, notwithstanding a
hundred admonitions on the subject.

"This is a distressing affair, captain Willoughby," observed Joel, in
his most jesuitical manner; "and to me it is altogether onaccountable!
It does seem to me ag'in natur', for a man to desart his own household
and hum' (Joel meant '_home_') in the hour of trial. If a fellow-
being wunt (Anglice 'wont') stand by his wife and children, he can
hardly be expected to do any of his duties."

"Quite true. Strides," answered the confiding captain, "though these
deserters are not altogether as bad as you represent, since, you will
remember, they have carried their wives and children with them."

"I believe they have, sir--yes, that must be allowed to be true, and
that it is, which to me seems the most extr'or'nary. The very men that
a person would calcilate on the most, or the heads of families, have
desarted, while them that remain behind are mostly single!"

"If we single men have no wives and children of our own to fight for,
Strides," observed Joyce, with a little military stiffness, "we have
the wife and children of captain Willoughby; no man who wishes to sell