enough to mind him!"

"Why, he put up a flagstaff on the wood pile, and a flag to liberty, you
know, that papa's fighting for," said Grace, more confidently, as she
saw her quiet, blue-eyed mother, who had silently walked into the room
during the conversation.

Grace's mother smiled and said, encouragingly, "And what then?"

"Why, he wanted me to throw up my bonnet and he his cap, and shout for
liberty; and then the wind took it and carried it off, and he said I
ought not to be sorry if I did lose it--it was an offering to liberty."

"And so I did," said Dick, who was standing as straight as a poplar
behind the group; "and I heard it in one of father's letters to mother,
that we ought to offer up every thing on the altar of liberty--and so I
made an altar of the wood pile."

"Good boy!" said his mother; "always remember every thing your father
writes. He has offered up every thing on the altar of liberty, true
enough; and I hope you, son, will live to do the same."

"Only, if I have the hoods and caps to make," said Aunt Hitty, "I hope
he won't offer them up every week--that's all!"

"O! well, Aunt Hitty, I've got the hood; let me alone for that. It blew
clear over into the Daddy Ward pasture lot, and there stuck on the top
of the great rail; and I played that the rail was a fort, and besieged
it, and took it."

"O, yes! you're always up to taking forts, and any thing else that
nobody wants done. I'll warrant, now, you left Gracie to pick up every
blessed one of them chips."

"Picking up chips is girl's work," said Dick; "and taking forts and
defending the country is men's work."

"And pray, Mister Pomp, how long have you been a man?" said Aunt Hitty.

"If I ain't a man, I soon shall be; my head is 'most up to my mother's
shoulder, and I can fire off a gun, too. I tried, the other day, when I
was up to the store. Mother, I wish you'd let me clean and load the old
gun, so that, if the British should come----"

"Well, if you are so big and grand, just lift me out that table, sir,"
said Aunt Hitty; "for it's past supper time."

Dick sprang, and had the table out in a trice, with an abundant clatter,
and put up the leaves with quite an air. His mother, with the silent and
gliding motion characteristic of her, quietly took out the table cloth
and spread it, and began to set the cups and saucers in order, and to
put on the plates and knives, while Aunt Hitty bustled about the tea.

"I'll be glad when the war'