She made inquiries about all the other roads leading out of
Richmond. Zene drove the carriage out of the barnyard, and Grandma
Padgett, having closed her account with the tavern, took the lines,
an object of interest and solicitude to all who saw her depart, and
turned Old Hickory and Old Henry on a southward track. Zene followed
with the wagon; he was on no account to loiter out of speaking
distance. The usual order of the march being thus reversed, both
vehicles moved along lonesomely. Even Boswell and Johnson scented
misfortune in the air. Johnson ran in an undeviating line under the
carriage, as if he wished his mistress to know he was right there
where she could depend on him. His countenance expressed not only
gravity, but real concern. Boswell, on the other hand, was in a state
of nerves. If he saw a bank at the roadside he ran ahead and mounted
it, looking back into the carriage, demanding to know, with a yelping
howl, where Bobaday and Corinne were. When his feelings became too
strong for him he jumped at the step, and Grandma Padgett shook her
head at him.
"Use your nose, you silly little fice, and track them, why don't you?"
As soon as Boswell understood this reproach he jumped a fence and
smelt every stump or tuft of grass, every bush and hummock, until the
carriage dwindled in the distance.
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