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Show Page 86 "Perhaps the lady would feel more kindly toward the ointment if she knew it also keeps the skin soft as a babe's bottom?" John asked, the gold flecks of his eyes lighting up with a mischievous glint as though he found something amusing. I ignored him as I picked up my basket and began to fill it once again, though I found it difficult not to smile at his teasing. I had forgotten the unknown creature that had sent me fleeing away from the last strawberry patch when of a sudden there was the same grunting, snuffling sound behind me. My arms flew upward as I screamed, the basket and strawberries sailing into the air only to come raining down upon my head. "So the lady is not as fierce as she pretends," John said. "I thought you were moving rather quickly through the trees when we met--you were fleeing a frightful menace no doubt." He chuckled. "It is only one of the Martin's Hundred swine turned loose to forage in the forest," he explained, taking me by the shoulders and turning me about. A ponderous sow waddled out of the bush followed by a litter of piglets, all snuffling and grunting as they nosed along the ground searching for mast upon which to forage. I sighed, my heart settling back where it belonged, then again rising into my throat when I realized John still had his hands upon my shoulders. Though my nose resented the odor of him, my beating heart welcomed the touch of him. If only my heart had told my tongue! |