SARAH (as Resolute seats herself at fire).  Mayhap, if I had a hearth I could compass such knowledge, Mistress.  But we be forest folk with no roof but the stars.

RESOLUTE. 
You chose——­

SARAH (busying herself with pouring the posset into cup and giving it to Goody Gleason).  Aye, Mistress, I know well what you would say.  We chose to live the life of Merrymount.  We brooked no Puritan rule:  therefore on our heads be it!  We suffer for the love of freedom. (Keenly.) Do you not suffer, too, for the same cause?  It was for freedom you and yours left England.  It was for freedom we and ours left Wollaston.  You could not brook restraint:  no more could we.

RESOLUTE. 
But your revels—­your songs and dancing——­

SARAH. 
We meet misfortune with a laugh instead of with a groan:  where is the
harm in that?

RESOLUTE
(with dawning friendliness). 
Indeed you give me much to ponder on.

SARAH (with a burst of candor).  Since I’ve known you I do not think so hard on Puritans. (Half-wistfully.) I wish—­I wish I had your arts and knew wise household ways.  I fear we be but addle-pates at Merrymount.  I cannot brew a medicine, nor spin, nor——­

RESOLUTE (rising).  Come, I will teach you! (They go to spinning-wheel.) Aye, sit you so, and mind you do not break the thread.  So!  So!

[While the spinning lesson is going on, Scarlett and his followers enter from left background, carrying fish, game, and wild fruits, Scarlett in advance of the others.  For a moment he stands transfixed by what he sees.  Then tiptoes back, beckons to others, and points out the picture.  Pantomime of surprise and stifled mirth.

SCARLETT (mockingly).  Look!  Look!  Our Sarah hath turned Puritan!  While as for Mistress Endicott—!  Come, Faunch, a tune, lad, a tune!  A wreath for our worthy guest! (Approaching Resolute.) Mistress, ’tis time you learned to trip it about the maypole.  I claim your hand for a measure——­

SARAH (suddenly returning from seeing to the preparations for feasting which are going on in background).  You shall do no such folly.  Mistress Resolute shall not dance if she holds that dancing is a sin.  Take that in your teeth, Simon Scarlett!

SCARLETT. 
Are you bewitched?  Hath the Puritan turned your head?

SARAH.  My wits, good Simon, are as clear as thine.  ’Tis true that the constables put our Bess in the stocks; but ’twas none of Resolute’s doing!  And when you stole her hence that debt was paid.  Moreover, of her own free will she has made a healing brew for our gran’am, and for that I stand her friend.

ROBIN WAKELESS (drawing near and hearing the controversy).  Is there no mirth left in you, Sarah Scarlett, that you cannot see the jest of making a sniveling Puritan to——­

SARAH (promptly and blazingly).  Cease your talk, Robin Wakeless!  And when you speak of sniveling Puritans, speak of them that do snivel.  For though you brought Mistress Endicott here in a rough and unseemly fashion, she has not once winced, no, nor plead for mercy.  You are quick to laud a brave front in yourselves:  are you less quick to laud it in your neighbors?