A Colonial Wooing
Robert Pearson was very active and continually coming and going to and from John's shop, Matthew Watson's house, and the landing where the boat was being made ready for the first trip of the season, John was passive. There was an abundance of work to be done, and he and his helpers were busy all day long, and he worked the harder, so his neighbor's thought, that he might drown the disappointment he had suffered. To think that Ruth Davenport had dared to trifle with so good a man; to accept him as her lover, it might be said, when she was poor, and then, finding herself an heiress, coolly going away, without a trace of regret. "It must weigh heavily upon her poor mother to have so heartless a child," was the common verdict all over Chesterfield and Nottingham. Little wonder at this, for the children of the township suffered terribly when a comparison was drawn. Healthy, good-looking children, and all that, but Ruth was rarely beautiful.
Ruth had failed almost entirely to learn the details of her step-father's plans, and not until two days before his boat was to start
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