Chapter 1
In the year 1691, Lois Barclay stood on a little wooden pier,
steadying herself on the stable land, in much the same manner as,
eight or nine weeks ago, she had tried to steady herself on the
deck of the rocking ship which had carried her across from Old to
New England. It seemed as strange now to be on solid earth as it
had been, not long ago, to be rocked by the sea, both by day and by
night; and the aspect of the land was equally strange. The forests
which showed in the distance all round, and which, in truth, were
not very far from the wooden houses forming the town of Boston,
were of different shades of green, and different, too, in shape of
outline to those which Lois Barclay knew well in her old home in
Warwickshire. Her heart sank a little as she stood alone,
