could see the stumps and houses far afield, as if it
had been noonday. Suddenly we all jumped to our feet. A wild yell
came echoing through the woods.

"There they be!" said Asher Eastman, as he cocked his gun. "I tol'
ye so."

As a matter of fact, he had told us nothing of the kind. He was
the one man who had said nothing.

Arv Law stood erect, his pike-pole poised in both hands, and we
were all ready for action. We could hear the rattle of many hoofs
on the road. As soon as the column showed in the firelight, Bill
Foster up with his musket and pulled the trigger. I could hear the
shot scatter on stump and stone. Every man had his gun to his eye.

"Wait till they come nearer," said Asher Eastman.

The Indians had halted. Far behind them we could hear the wild
hallooing of many voices. In a moment we could see those on
horseback go galloping off in the direction whence they had come.
Back in the house a number of the women were praying. My mother
came out, her face whiter than I had ever seen it before, and
walked to my father, and kissed him without ever saying a word.
Then she went back into the house.

"Scairt?" I inquired, turning to Rose, who now stood beside me.

"I should think I was," she whispered. "I 'm all of a tremble."

"If anything happens, I 'd like something to remember you by."

"What?" she whispered.

I looked at her beautiful red lips. She had never let me kiss them.

"A kiss, if nothing more," I answered.

She gave me a kiss then that told me something of what was in her
heart, and went away into the house.

"Goin' t' surround us," said Arv Law--"thet 's whut 's th' matter."

"Mus' be ready t' rassle 'em any minute," said Asher Eastman, as he
sidled over to a little group.

A young man came out of the house and took his place in line with a
big squirt-gun and a pail of steaming-hot water.

The night wore on; our fires burned low. As the approaching day
began to light the clearing, we heard a sound that brought us all
to our feet. A burst of bugle notes went chasing over the
timber-land to the tune of "Yankee Doodle." We looked at one
another in surprise. Then there came a thunder of hoofs in the
distance, the ragged outline of a troop of cavalry.

"Soldiers!" said Arv, as he raised his pike.

"The British?" somebody asked.

"Dunno," said he. "Ain' no Injuns, I don't b'lieve."

A troop of cavalry was approaching at a gallop. They pulled up a
few rods away