the party could not ascertain, but the defiant air of the woman revealed the fact that there was such a prejudice.  She was a noble, robust, gigantic specimen of her sex, well formed, strong as an ox, with a resolute jaw, and she talked, through tightly-closed teeth, in an aggressive manner.  Dinner was ordered, and the party strolled about the village pending its preparation; but it was not ready when they returned.  “I ain’t goin’ to cook no victuals,” the woman explained, not ungraciously, “till I know folks is goin’ to eat it.”  Knowledge of the world had made her justly cautious.  She intended to set out a good meal, and she had the true housewife’s desire that it should be eaten, that there should be enough of it, and that the guests should like it.  When she waited on the table she displayed a pair of arms that would discourage any approach to familiarity, and disincline a timid person to ask twice for pie; but in point of fact, as soon as the party became her bona-fide guests, she was royally hospitable, and only displayed anxiety lest they should not eat enough.

“I like folks to be up and down and square,” she began saying, as she vigilantly watched the effect of her culinary skill upon the awed little party.  “Yes, I’ve got a regular hotel license; you bet I have.  There’s been folks lawed in this town for sellin’ a meal of victuals and not having one.  I ain’t goin’ to be taken in by anybody.  I warn’t raised in New Hampshire to be scared by these Massachusetts folks.  No, I hain’t got a girl now.  I had one a spell, but I’d rather do my own work.  You never knew what a girl was doin’ or would do.  After she’d left I found a broken plate tucked into the ash-barrel.  Sho! you can’t depend on a girl.  Yes, I’ve got a husband.  It’s easier to manage him.  Well, I tell you a husband is better than a girl.  When you tell him to do anything, you know it’s going to be done.  He’s always about, never loafin’ round; he can take right hold and wash dishes, and fetch water, and anything.”

King went into the kitchen after dinner and saw this model husband, who had the faculty of making himself generally useful, holding a baby on one arm, and stirring something in a pot on the stove with the other.  He looked hot but resigned.  There has been so much said about the position of men in Massachusetts that the travelers were glad of this evidence that husbands are beginning to be appreciated.  Under proper training they are acknowledged to be “better than girls.”

It was late afternoon when they reached the quiet haven of Plymouth—­a place where it is apparently always afternoon, a place of memory and reminiscences, where the whole effort of the population is to hear and to tell some old thing.  As the railway ends there, there is no danger of being carried beyond, and the train slowly ceases motion, and stands still in the midst of a great and welcome silence.  Peace fell upon the travelers like a garment, and although they had as much difficulty in landing their baggage as the early Pilgrims had in getting theirs ashore, the circumstance was not able to disquiet them much.  It seemed natural that their trunks should go astray on some of the inextricably interlocked and branching railways, and they had no doubt that when they had made the tour of the State they would be discharged, as they finally were, into this cul-de-sac.