Thee
mustn't think I'm like the young women in the city, who,--I'm told,--if
they buy a spool of cotton, must have it sent home to them. Besides,
thee mustn't over-exert thy strength."
Richard Hilton laughed merrily at the gravity with which she uttered
the last sentence.
"Why, Miss--Asenath, I mean--what am I good for, if I have not strength
enough to carry a basket?"
"Thee's a man, I know, and I think a man would almost as lief be
thought wicked as weak. Thee can't help being weakly-inclined, and it's
only right that thee should be careful of thyself. There's surely
nothing in that that thee need be ashamed of."
While thus speaking, Asenath moderated her walk, in order,
unconsciously to her companion, to restrain his steps.
"Oh, there are the dog's-tooth violets in blossom!" she exclaimed,
pointing to a shady spot beside the brook; "does thee know them?"
Richard immediately gathered and brought to her a handful of the
nodding yellow bells, trembling above their large, cool, spotted
leaves.
"How beautiful they are!" said he; "but I should never have taken them
for violets."
"They are misnamed," she answered. "The flower is an
_Erythronium_; but I am accustomed to the common name, and like
it.
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