my mother a keg of rum, and I have sworn to beat in the head of the next you give her. She will take nothing from you."
"There you are mistaken. Glory; she will take as much as I will give her. You mean that you will not. I understand your pride. Glory! and I love you for it."
"I care nothing for your love or your hate. We are naught to each other."
"Yes, we are, I am your landlord. We shall see how that sentiment of yours will stand next Thursday."
"What do you mean?" asked Mehalah hastily.
"What do I mean? Why, I suppose I am intelligible enough in what I say for you to understand me without explanation. When you come to pay the rent to me next Thursday, you will not be able to say we are naught to each other. Why! you will have to pay me for every privilege of life you enjoy, for the house you occupy, for the marshes that feed your cow and swell its udder with milk, for the saltings on which your sheep fatten and grow their wool."
The brave girl's heart failed for a moment. She had not the money. What would Elijah say and do when he discovered that she and her mother were defaulters? However, she put a bold face on the matter now, and thrusting off the boat with her oar, she said impatiently, "You are causing me to waste precious time. I must be back before the water is out of the fleets."
"Whither are you going?" again asked Rebow, and again he drove his boat athwart her bows. "It is not safe for a young girl like you to be about on the water after nightfall with ruffians of all sorts poaching on my saltings and up and down my creeks."
"I am going to Mersea City," said Mehalah.
"You are going to George De Witt."
"What if I am? That is no concern of yours.'
"He is my cousin."
"I wish he were a cousin very far removed from you."
"Oh Glory! you are jesting." He caught the side of the punt with his hand, for she made an effort to push past him. "I shall not detain you long. Take these curlew. They are plump birds; your mother will relish them.
