it. None but gentlemen of quality carry such things
about them: and as there is so much contriving and bloody doings going
on about here, I was sure you wasn't what you seemed."

"For heaven's sake, my dear," exclaimed Butler, startled by the
disclosure of the maiden's suspicion, which was so naturally accounted
for, "keep this to yourself, and the time may come when I shall be able
to reward your fidelity. If you have any good will towards me, as I hope
you have, tell nobody what you have seen."

"Never fear me, sir," returned the maid. "I wouldn't let on to any one
in the house for the world. I am for General Washington and the
Congress, which is more than I think the people here are."

"Indeed!" muttered Butler, thoughtfully, and scarce above his breath.
"What side does your father take, Mary?"

"My father is an old man, sir. And he reads his Bible, and every night,
before we go to bed, he prays aloud before us all, I mean all that
belong to his house, for quiet once more and peace. His petition is that
there may be an end of strife, and that the sword and spear may be
turned into the pruning-hook and ploughshare--you know the words, sir,
perhaps, for they are in the good book, and so he doesn't take any side.
But then, the English officers are not far off, and they take his house
and use it as they please, so that he has no mind of his own. And almost
all the people round us are Tories, and we are afraid of our lives if we
do not say whatever they say."

"Alas! that's the misfortune of many more than your father's household.
But how comes it that you are a friend of General Washington?"

"Oh, sir, I think he is our friend; and then he is a good man. And I
have a better reason still to be on his side," added the maiden
tremulously, with her head averted.

"What reason, my good girl?"

"John Ramsay, sir."

"Indeed! a very cogent reason, I doubt not, my pretty maid of the mill.
And how does this reason operate?"

"We have a liking, sir," she replied bashfully, but with innocent
frankness; "he is for Washington, and we are to be married when the war
is over."

"Truly, that is a most excellent reason! Who is John Ramsay?"

"He is a trooper, sir, and out with General Sumpter. We don't see him
often now, for he is afraid to come home, excepting when the Tories are
away."

"These Tories are very troublesome, Mary," said Butler, laughing; "they
annoy us all, on our side of the question. But love John Ramsay,