Desire looked about, and saw all the women kissing their men. The air
was electric.

"Yes," she said, and gave him her red lips, and for a moment it seemed
as if the earth had gone from under his feet. The next thing he knew
he was standing in line, with Reub on one side, and George Fennell on
the other and Abner Rathbun's six feet three towering at one end of
the line, while Parson West was standing on the piazza of the store,
praying for the blessing of God on the expedition.

"Amen," the parson said, and Captain Woodbridge's voice rang out
again. The lines faced to the right, filed off the green at quick
step, turned into the Pittsfield road, and left the women to their
tears.




CHAPTER SECOND

NINE YEARS AFTER


Early one evening in the very last of August, 1786, only three years
after the close of the Revolutionary war, a dozen or twenty men and
boys, farmers and laborers, are gathered, according to custom, in the
big barroom of Stockbridge tavern. The great open fireplace of course
shows no cheery blaze of logs at this season, and the only light is
the dim and yellow illumination diffused by two or three homemade
tallow candles stuck about the bar, which runs along half of one side