r will make a box for him and I
can take him home."

Paul said that would do very well, and that Anna could come each day and
learn how to feed the little creatures, and what they liked best to eat.

"But which one is to be mine? They are exactly alike," said Anna, a
little anxiously. And indeed there was no way of telling the rabbits
apart, so Anna and Luretta agreed that when the time came to separate
them it would not matter which one Anna chose for her own.

At supper time Anna could talk of nothing but the rabbits, and had so
much to say that her father and mother did not notice how silent Rebecca
was.

The little household retired early, and by eight o'clock Rebecca was in
bed, but alert to every sound, and resolved not to go to sleep. The
sisters slept together, and in a few minutes Anna was sound asleep.
Rebecca heard the clock strike nine, then very quietly she got out of
bed and dressed. Her moccasins made no noise as she stepped cautiously
along the narrow passage, and down the steep stairway. She lifted the
big bar that fastened the door and stood it against the wall, then she
opened the door, closing it carefully behind her, and stepped out into
the warm darkness of the spring night.

CHAPTER VII

"A TRAITOR'S DEED"

It was one of those May evenings that promise that summer is close at
hand. The air was soft and warm; there was no wind, and in the clear
starlight Rebecca could see the shadows of the tall elm tree near the
blacksmith shop, and the silvery line of the softly flowing river. As
she stood waiting for Lucia she looked up into the clear skies and
traced the stars forming the Big Dipper, nearly over her head. Low down
in the west Jupiter shone brightly, and the broad band of shimmering
stars that formed the Milky Way stretched like a jeweled necklace across
the heavens. The little village slept peacefully along the river's bank;
not a light was to be seen in any of the shadowy houses. A chorus of
frogs from the marshes sounded shrilly through the quiet. In years to
come, when Rebecca heard the first frogs sounding their call to spring,
she was to recall that beautiful night when she stole out to try and
save the town, as she believed, from being fired on by a British
gunboat.

She had made so early a start that she had to wait what seemed a very
long time for Lucia, who approached so quietly that not until she
touched Rebby'