lcome.

"Faith is resting on the sofa, but you may go right in, Louise. I know
she will be glad to see you," she said, smiling down at the dark-eyed
little girl. "When are you coming to make us another visit?"

"Father said I might stay all night if you asked me," responded
Louise, who now felt sure that Mrs. Scott was her friend.

"We shall be glad indeed to have you, my dear. Let me take your cap
and cape. And go in and cheer up Faithie, for I fear she has had an
unhappy time," said Mrs. Scott.

Louise's smile faded. She had never had a friend until Faith Carew
came to Ticonderoga, and the thought that any one had made Faith
unhappy made her ready to inflict instant punishment on the offenders.

"Oh, Louise! I'm so glad it's you!" exclaimed Faith, as she heard the
sound of Louise's crutch stubbing across the floor.

Louise sat down beside the crumpled little figure on the sofa.

"What did they do, Faith?" she demanded.

Faith told the story of the walk to the fort; of the disagreeable
manner of both Caroline and Catherine toward her, and of their
disappearance as soon as they were inside the fort. But she did not
tell of her efforts to find them, nor of Nathan Beaman's appearance.

"They are hateful things!" Louise declared, "but it won't be long
before they'll go to Albany with their father. Oh!" she ended a little
fearfully. "I ought not to have told that. It's a secret," she added
quickly.

"No, it isn't. They told me," answered Faith, "and if it were a secret
I shouldn't want to know it. I hate and despise secrets."

Louise looked at her friend with a little nod of comprehension.
"That's because you have a secret," she said.

"How did you know, Louise?" and Faith wondered if it were possible
Louise could know about the blue dress.

"I know," said Louise. "It's dreadful to know secrets. I can stay all
night. My father has gone to the fort. Oh!" and again she put her hand
over her mouth. "I ought not to have told that. He doesn't want any
one to know."

Faith leaned back against the sofa with a little sigh of
discouragement. It seemed to her there was nothing but secrets. She
wished she was with her mother and father in her pleasant cabin home,
where everybody knew about everything.

"Where's 'Lady Amy'?" asked Louise, quite sure that such a beautiful
doll would comfort any trouble. And her question made Faith remember
that Louise was a guest.

"I'll get her," she said, and in a few moments "Lady