ng,
but her appearance was anything but cheerful. Her face was very pale,
her hair was unbound and hung upon her shoulders in a tangled mass;
her garments were dew drenched, and she limped painfully. With a bound
her son reached her side.

"Mother! mother!" was all he could say.

"I thought ye'd get through, Hannah," cried Thomas Ashley. "I was just
telling the boy so. Mary, Mary! Hannah's come."

With cries and exclamations of wonder and joy they gathered about her,
heaping caresses upon her until the good woman begged for mercy,
declaring that she was hungry, and would have no breath left wherewith
to partake of food. Then they bore her into the house, and while Sally
and Peggy dressed the sprained ankle, Mrs. Ashley brought coffee, and
Mr. Ashley cut great slices of ham, insisting that the occasion
warranted a feast. But the son remained by her side as though he
feared to leave her. They grew calm finally, and then Nurse Johnson
told of her escape.

"'Tis naught to make such a pother about," she said settling back
comfortably in her chair, a cup of coffee in hand. "I knew that Tom
wouldn't be able to hold Fairfax much longer, and I wasn't going to
have those rascals get him if I could help it. Providence was on my
side, for I seemed to have wings given me. I didn't know that I could
run so fast, but fear, aided by a few bullets, would develop speed in
the most of us, I reckon.

"I had a little start of the Tories, though I knew that I could not
keep it, when my foot caught in a vine, or root, and I fell. I tried
to get up, but my ankle was sprained so I could not rise. Instead, in
my efforts, I began to roll down the declivity, for the ground was
slightly rolling where I had fallen, and over and over I went until
presently the bottom was reached, and I came to a stop in a little
hollow. Something stirred as I rolled into the thicket, and an animal,
'twas too dark to see what it was, though it seemed like a doe, or a
fawn, leaped up and bounded away through the forest. I heard the men
go crashing after it, and it came to me that if I did not move they
might pass on, thinking that the deer was their prey. That is all
there is to it. So you see I did naught after all. Save for the mishap
of a sprained ankle, and a little chill, I am no worse off than ye
are."

"Oh! but the risk, Friend Nurse," cried Peggy.

"Was no greater than to stay here. We did not know of a certainty that
the men would leave the house in