must not be choosers. The land is new and must be peopled, nor
will those who come after us look too curiously into the lineage of
those to whom a nation owes its birth. What we in these
plantations need is a loosening of the bonds which tie us to home,
to England, and a tightening of those which bind us to this land in
which we have cast our lot. We put our hand to the plough, but we
turn our heads and look to our Egypt and its fleshpots. 'T is
children and wife - be that wife princess or peasant - that make
home of a desert, that bind a man with chains of gold to the
country where they abide. Wherefore, when at midday I met good
Master Wickham rowing down from Henricus to Jamestown, to
offer his aid to Master Bucke in his press of business to-morrow, I
gave the good man Godspeed, and thought his a fruitful errand and
one pleasing to the Lord."

"Amen," I yawned. "I love the land, and call it home. My withers
are unwrung."

He rose to his feet, and began to pace the greensward before the
door. My eyes followed his trim figure, richly though sombrely
clad, then fell with a sudden dissatisfaction upon my own stained
and frayed apparel.

"Ralph," he said presently, coming to a stand before me, "have you
ever an hundred and twenty pounds of tobacco in hand? If not, I" -

"I have the weed," I replied. "What then?"

"Then at dawn drop down with the tide to the city, and secure for
thyself one of these same errant damsels."