ng a little fur-clad figure with flushed cheeks and angry eyes.

"That was our fire. You had no business to put it out," Faith
declared.

"Oh, ho! What's this?" laughed the soldier. "Do you own this lake? Or
perhaps you are our new captain?"

"It is a mean thing to spoil our fire," continued Faith; "we wouldn't
do you any harm."

"I'm not so sure about that," replied the soldier. "You have a pretty
fierce expression," and with another kick at the fire, and a
"good-bye, little rebel," to Faith, the two soldiers started back to
the fort. The skaters now, troubled and angry by the unfriendly
interference, were taking off their skates and starting for home.

"I wish American soldiers were in that fort," said Nat Beaman.

"Why don't you ask Colonel Allen to come and take it?" asked Faith
earnestly; she was quite sure that Ethan Allen could do anything he
attempted.

"Ask him yourself," responded Nathan laughingly.

"I guess I will," Faith thought to herself, as she followed Aunt
Prissy up the field toward home. "Perhaps that would be doing
something to help Americans."

The more Faith thought about this the stronger became her resolve to
ask Colonel Allen to take possession of Fort Ticonderoga. She was so
silent all the way home that her companions were sure she was
overtired. Louise had to return to her own home, and soon after supper
Faith was ready to go to bed.

"I've got a real secret now; even if I don't like secrets," she
thought to herself. For she realized that she could not tell any one
of her determination to find some way to ask Ethan Allen to capture
Ticonderoga and send the troublesome English soldiers back to their
own homes.

CHAPTER XV

NEW ADVENTURES

"It will be a good day to put a quilt in the frame," said Aunt Prissy,
the morning after Faith's birthday. "You and Donald can help me with
it right after breakfast; then while you children are off to the lake
I will mark the pattern."

"Can't I help mark the pattern?" asked Faith, who had sometimes helped
her mother, and thought it the most interesting part of the quilting.

The quilting-frame, four long strips of wood, was brought into the
sitting-room and rested on the backs of four stout wooden chairs,
forming a square. The frame was held firmly together at the corners by
clamps and screws, so that it could be changed and adjusted to fit the
quilt.

This quilt was a very pretty one, Faith thought, as she watched Aunt
Prissy f