Then you will make up your mind, eh?
You need not tell me until then." He took the lead again and this time struck straight down for the town.
They passed a number of houses built of logs and Nathaniel caught narrow gleams of light from between close-drawn curtains.

In one of these houses he heard the crying of children, and with a return of his grisly humor Obadiah Price prodded him in the ribs and said, "Good old Israel Laeng lives there--two wives, one old, one young--eleven children.

The Kingdom of Heaven is open to him!" And from a second he heard the sound of an organ, and from still a third there came the laughter and chatter of several feminine voices, and again Obadiah reached out and prodded Nathaniel in the ribs.

There was one great, gloomy, long-built place which they passed, without a ray of light to give it life, and the councilor said, "Three widows there, Nat,--fight like cats and dogs.

Poor Job killed himself." They avoided the more thickly populated part of the settlement and encountered few people, which seemed to please the councilor.