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 All along the highway, as Zenas and Sally proceeded toward the Mountain settlement, they were constantly stopped by folk who ran out into their path, pathetically eager for news of the battle at Newark. Sally saw many of the refugees they had noticed the previous night among them and came at last upon the old gentleman who had fled with his daughter and her little children.

"What news? What news?" he inquired, feebly hastening out to them from the roadside, his grandchild having run to report to him of their approach.

"Little can we give ye, sir," answered Sally pitifully. "Only that the enemy did march through the Town by the River, having arrived there about noon, driving four hundred head o' cattle and four hundred head o' sheep, wi' some horses which they gathered as they came from Elizabeth Town!"

"The varlets!" A bright blaze of anger flung a red banner in the old man's parchment cheeks. "Robbing us that they may live i' luxury! Thankee, miss," he added, as Sally touched her horse and trotted on after Zenas.

Again and again were the young riders detained—almost every farmhouse having its quota of eager watchers out to stop travelers from Newark—and when they came at last to Samuel Munn's Tavern, they were both tired and hungry. It was just as Sally drew rein before the tavern that the same thought struck her that flashed into Zenas's

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 mind. With a simultaneous movement, they slid down from their horses and fled toward the stable-yard.

"Think ye—James will be dead o' starvation?" gasped out Sally, flying along beside Zenas, her eyes wide with horror and remorse.

"Nay—not so—soon!" stammered Zenas. Then, suddenly, he chuckled. "But oh, won't he be mad!"

James may have been angry; but not at that moment, for when they drew the bar and flung open the door to the saddle room, it was empty!

Sally and Zenas stared at each other. "Why, James be gone!" said Sally stupidly. "At least—at least—we know he hath not starved to death! Come," she turned wearily away, "let us back to the horses, Zenas!"

"Why not stop here for supper?" suggested Zenas wistfully.

Sally shook her head. "Nay," she answered firmly, turning with decided steps toward the stable-yard entrance, "your mother would not like it an she knew we had tarried thus near home!"

Zenas, who had been lingering, and casting hungry glances toward the kitchen door of the inn, now straightened his tired shoulders at mention of his mother, as Sally knew he would. "Ye be right," he said hurriedly. "Let us go on! I"

Sally, glancing up in surprise as Zenas's voice,

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 stopped, followed his gaze to the kitchen door. There stood James Williams, grinning complacently at them, an appetizing chicken bone, temptingly browned and carrying much meat, prominently displayed in either hand! As they stared, he slowly raised one of the bones to his mouth and, sneering at them over it, took off a great bite. Behind him showed the smiling face of the kitchen wench belonging to the inn.

"Ha!" mumbled James, taking another great bite. "Don't ye wish ye were me!"

"How came ye free?" asked Zenas bluntly, trying not to eye too longingly the chicken bones. Despite himself, however, his gaze sought and envied each great bite James took.

James smiled maddeningly. "Don't ye wish ye did know?" he taunted.

"Where be Mistress Munn?" demanded Sally.

James's glance darkened. "What business o' yours?" he returned rudely.

"She be away—that be certain," observed Sally, looking significantly at the tavern maid, who flushed and disappeared. "Come"—Sally turned indifferently away—"let us go, Zenas! Naught is gained save discord by remaining here!"

But Zenas shook his head. "I mean to have some o' that chicken!" he answered determinedly. "James need not think he can taunt us thus!" And as he moved toward the tavern door, Sally stopped

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 to watch, her own mouth watering, for their fare of bread and milk had been slim, indeed, for the two healthy young folk.

It was hopeless, however. The teasing James maliciously allowed his younger brother almost to reach the kitchen door, when suddenly he slammed it shut in Zenas's very face. And then, from within, Sally and Zenas could hear howls of laughter at the boy's discomfiture, the tavern maid joining in loudly.

Hot tears of anger came into Sally's eyes; but she raised her chin and turned haughtily away once more. "Come ye, Zenas!" she said disdainfully. "Ye will get naught from that fine pair!" And she swept on toward the horses, disregarding the grinning faces which now peered out of the tavern windows.

The rest of the journey back to the Williams's farm was a silent one, for Sally's remorseful thought ever returned to that friend whom she had unconsciously betrayed. As she rode along, anxious wondering furrowed her brow. What would happen to Jerry Lawrence now? Would the patriots, incensed over the invasion of their homes, the stealing of their cattle and sheep, hurry to the jail in the Town by the River and there wreak their vengeance upon the red-coats confined there? Or would those red-coats be treated as military prisoners, granted a military trial, and so escape the wrath of the mob?

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 The two young travelers were stopped three or four times more and begged to tell of the battle, before they reached home. Sally, looking down into the harrowed, anxious eyes of the women as they demanded news of loved ones, sighed when, at her, they turned and went silently back, children clinging to their skirts, to their doorsteps, resuming their bitter watch, waiting—waiting for the footsteps which might never sound again upon those thresholds. This was the fate of many of those brave Colonial women—the loss of husband or father or brother—for each time the enemy descended upon war-worn New Jersey some patriot paid toll with his life.

At last the girl and boy came within sight of the Williams's farmhouse. Gaunt and forbidding, like the grim old Tory who had built it, its stone front seemed to glower at them suspiciously as they trotted up the road on their horses toward it. Dusk had already descended the slope of the Mountain, beneath the gloom of which the old house stood stark and drear. And somehow the dreariness of that old house seemed to enter into Sally's heart, making her feel outcast, lonely. Somehow, it seemed to say to her, "Why do ye return here? This be not your home—these people not your people!"

Slipping from her horse, as she and Zenas drew rein before the kitchen door, she stood with bright

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 head a-droop. Even the appearance of Mistress Williams, her face fairly aglow with happiness, in response to a lusty call from Zenas, did not comfort Sally. For Mistress Mary brushed past her unheedingly as she ran to kiss and hug her boy! Sally watched with trembling lips the greeting between the two. The old ache, forgotten in the excitement of the past few days, came back to her. Oh, to have a mother put her arms around one like that, to kiss one so tenderly, so lovingly! Would she, Sally, bond maid to the Todds, never know that happiness?

The next instant the girl felt a warm, soft embrace around her. "Welcome back, Sally!" said Mistress Williams, smiling down at her. "Welcome back, my dear!"

But though the dear lady's kiss upon Sally's brow was sincere and affectionate, the girl realized—and tried not to envy him!—that Zenas had received the real welcome home!

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ALLY was standing a-tiptoe, lighting the candles in their tin holders on the high shelf over the Williamses' fireplace, when a sarcastic voice spoke behind her.

"I' good sooth, mistress, art still here? I wonder at ye!"

Sally blew out the wood chip which she had been using as a taper and turned around coolly. "I wonder at ye daring to return!" she answered.

"How so, mistress?" James Williams, hands in coat pockets, teetered back and forth upon the threshold and eyed her with a look in which teasing and maliciousness were equally blended.

"Think ye a traitor to his mother should be welcome?" demanded the girl hotly, her own gaze dark and wide with accusation.

James, however, merely grinned. "Tush!" he said, lazily removing and hanging up his hat upon its wooden peg behind the door. "Where be my mother?" he asked.

Instead of answering, Sally went over to the spinning wheel which stood in the corner

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 started its spokes revolving. James's glance darkened at her deliberate insolence, and he was about to stalk over to her, to reprimand, when his mother entered the kitchen from an adjoining bedroom.

"Hush! Best not to start the wheel until little Nat doth fall asleep, he be so wakeful wi' his teeth, Sally!" she said, her fingers to her lips. She glanced at James in surprise; but gave him a cordial kiss when he loungingly approached her. "What, ye home, my dear! Where hast kept thyself since yesterday?"

"I—had business," James told her, after a slight hesitation. "Business i' which my father was interested," he added, well knowing how to close his mother's mouth.

True to James's shrewd surmise, a slight shade passed over Mistress Williams's sweet face, and she did not pursue the subject. Instead, she went over to the fireplace, where she took the bellows and, getting down stiffly upon her knees, prepared to "blaze" the fire for supper. Sally, who had stopped the whirr of the spinning wheel, now came forward quickly.

"Do ye let me 'blaze' the fire!" she begged. "And you do something I cannot!"

James now disappeared and Zenas, coming in slowly and wearily from outdoors, took his place.

"So tired, dear?" asked Mistress Williams, presently hearing him sigh. She looked up sym-

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 pathetically from the porridge she was stirring over the fire Sally had succeeded in blowing to a splendid glow. The girl sat back upon her heels and stared dreamily into the dancing flames wondering, as usual, about Jerry—how he was faring, what he was doing, what would become of him?

"Tired, Mother—aye, and hungry!" said Zenas. He sank upon the fireside settle to watch his mother.

"Hungry?" repeated Mistress Williams. She looked dubiously from the porridge pot to Zenas. "I know," she went on, her face brightening. "I'll make waffles for ye, Zenas! The very thing! Fetch me the flour bag and two eggs, Sally," she directed, rising to take down the long-handled waffle iron from where it hung beside the Dutch oven door. "And get some butter from the spring house," she added, calling softly after the girl as Sally sprang up and flew to do her bidding.

Soon the big kitchen began to be filled with the appetizing odor of baking waffles, and the pile of golden, fluffy things began to tower upon the platter Mistress Williams had placed in the warming oven before the fire.

"Hast syrup, Ma?" asked Zenas, getting up to draw his three-legged stool to the supper table, which Sally had set. "Waffles be naught without syrup!"

"Aye, some maple syrup which I did save from

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 last winter against this treat, lad," answered his mother, transferring an enormous pile of the waffles on to Zenas's plate, which she had warmed for him, and placing it before him. "I did think mayhap I should ha' sent the syrup to the soldiers at Morris Town," she went on apologetically, "but 'twas not enow for many, so I saved it!"

"And glad enow we are ye did. Ma," said Zenas, with a twinkle, taking the syrup pitcher his mother had handed to him and letting the yellow-brown liquid splash down upon the cakes.

"Do ye sit down, too, Sally," directed Mistress Williams kindly, "for ye be as hungry as Zenas, here, I have no doubt!"

"Hungrier!" laughed Sally, obeying her. "Oh, I II [sic] was but jesting, Zenas, truly! Stop, that be enow!" she added, as the boy unselfishly gave her the larger half of his pile of waffles.

"There be more to come," said Mistress Williams, smiling. "I wonder where the children are?" She glanced at the clock in the corner.

"Ye wait, Sally," promised Zenas, attacking his cakes with a two-pronged fork. "Ye will indeed want more! The children, Ma?" He glanced over at his mother, who, seated upon a stool, was watching the waffle iron. "Oh, they will be along presently."

There was silence for a while, as Mistress Williams skillfully ejected the delicious morsels from

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 the waffle iron, greased it, poured in more batter, and, snapping the cover, replaced the iron in the fire, seemingly all with one swift motion. Then candles flickered as the door opened and closed and Master Williams stood before it. His tired, worried face brightened as he took in the cheerful picture—Zenas and Sally chatting and eating at the table, his wife upon her low stool, watching with such an intent gaze the waffle iron! He took off his hat slowly, came forward to kiss his wife, and to place, for an instant, a fatherly hand upon Zenas's shoulder.

"How now, my lad?" he said affectionately' smiling across the table at Sally, "didst have a successful journey to the Town by the River? Mother said ye were going wi' Sally. Ye ha' much to tell us o' the battle and all, this even, I make no doubt."

Involuntarily, the eyes of the girl and the boy met across their now empty waffle plates. "Aye, sir—there be much o' interest to narrate," answered Zenas respectfully, then. But Sally, her gaze dropping to the jagged rents in sleeve and skirt, knew that one interesting incident would not be told.

Master Williams seated himself upon the settle and sighed as he passed his hand across his brow. "Bad news, wife," he muttered. "The battle still rages to the north o' Newark, for the militia are determined that the British shall not pass beyond.

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 An the British did sweep back this way, o'erpowering the rebels, there be no telling what might happen." His troubled glanced traveled around the ancient kitchen, whose beams had stood for so many years. "Troops mad wi' victory oft do not know friend from foe! And e'en the rebels gain the victory, still, sentiment be roused against us who remain loyal to His Majesty—they will resent us as they resent the men who they claim have invaded their homes! While the Amnesty Act hath expired, now, and there be danger—there be danger!"

Mistress Williams, who had been listening silently, rose from her place and, platter of waffles in hand, nodded toward the table.

"Come, Nathaniel," she said, in her cheerful voice, twill do ye no good to worry! Live life as ye go along, say I, and fret not about the morrow! An there was aught we could do, then I believe i' being up and doing! But when all we can do is to wait, then let us not fret and grumble wi' the waiting!"

Master Williams looked at her with a smile. "Why, ye be right, wife," he answered heartily, rising and following her to the table as he spoke. "What ha' we here—'waffles? Nay, this be an unexpected treat!"

"E'en save us some o' the treat!" drawled a voice, with some insolence, as the door opened and

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 James reëntered the kitchen, followed by Amos, half scuffling as they made for their seats, and the younger Williams children streamed along after them.

"Softly, boys, softly!" exclaimed Master Williams. He glanced at them leniently, however, and as he passed the platter of waffles to them, his glance met that of his wife. "I mind me when the boys were little—always scuffling they were, then, too!" he remarked. "Do ye remember, Mary?"

"Aye, Nathaniel, I—remember!" she answered, with a half catch in her breath. Sally, looking at her obliquely just then, wondered if she imagined the tears she thought she saw in the mother's eyes, then concluded that she had, as Mistress Williams turned with some playful question to Amos.

Zenas looked resentfully at the pile of waffles James dumped from the platter on to his pewter plate. "I cannot see how ye would be hungry, i' sooth, James!" he observed pointedly. "Those gorged wi' chicken should want naught else!"

James merely grinned at him maliciously and reached for the syrup pitcher. Mistress Williams, observing that the waffle platter was empty, started to rise from the table, although her own plate was untouched as yet; but Sally forestalled her.

"Nay!" exclaimed the girl, "let me bake more waffles! See—e'en now have I finished. And ye

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 must be weary after baking so many!" She flew across to the fireplace at the housewife's grateful nod, and had just greased the iron, had just beaten the batter ready for pouring, when there came the sound of sudden tumult outside the door and a loud knock.

Mistress Williams turned a pale face toward her husband. "Nathaniel!" she half whispered. Forks were dropped along the table as his children turned their faces toward Master Williams.

He opened his lips to speak; but no sound came forth. From where she knelt upon the hearth, Sally could see that his jaw muscles had tightened and his eyes were starting from his head for the instant. A great panic came upon her, and the batter she was about to pour dribbled aimlessly into the fire from her iron spoon as she sank back upon her heels. Was she to witness tragedy, here? For she realized that Master Williams had been living on borrowed time, so far as the patriots were concerned, since he had not taken the oath of allegiance.

Once more came the imperative knocking—rat-a-tat-tat! rat-a-tat-tat! And this time Master Williams nodded to Amos.

"Answer!" he ordered sharply.

As Amos threw open the door, then, there came a surge of excited people into the room, a clamor of voices and discordant calls.

"Hi, Tory—clear out!"

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 "Aye, ye must go, Williams!"

Tis good time, beshrew me an it isn't!"

"What, art lingering here wi' thy fat acres and thy grist mill and all?"

"Tory dog, say I! W'e want not such as ye i' this neighborhood!"

Master Williams rose slowly to his feet. There was a stunned look upon his face now, as he recognized near neighbors and good friends among that angry gathering. His wife, too, stumbled to her feet, felt her way slowly past her children to place her hand upon his arm. When she had done so, some of the eyes softened as they gazed at her sweet pale face.

"Why come ye here i' this manner, neighbors?" asked Nathaniel Williams. Amos and James, who had remained seated, now rose and ranged themselves one on either side of their parents, and so faced the mob.

One man, evidently selected spokesman, advanced. "Williams," he said coldly, "we ha' not come—this time—to do thy person bodily injury! But we have come to see why ye do remain here! The Amnesty Act hath long since expired and having no word o' your swearing allegiance to our cause, we know ye to be Tory. Miy, then, are ye here? We demand your banishment and your lands confiscate to the State! E'en this day hath your king sent his troops into our fair land of New

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 Jersey"—he made a passionate gesture, while his voice grew more and more bitter—"which they did despoil and yet are despoiling! They stole our horses and cattle and sheep and e'en such grain as we have harvested! We hate and loathe that king and all who sympathize with him! So," he fixed a burning gaze upon Master Williams's set face, "we would be rid o' ye and your ilk! And now we are come to see why ye do tarry i' our midst!"

"Neighbors," began Nathaniel Williams. He stopped, choked, made a piteous, pleading movement with his hands. "I will begone!" he said, when only stern silence answered him, "I do—promise—ye—I will begone!"

There was a tense stillness; then, someone starting for the open door, everyone followed like sheep until only the spokesman lingered upon the threshold.

He looked grimly at Master Williams. "Be warned!" he said tersely, "and e'er to-morrow comes, begone!" Then he, too, disappeared into the night, and Zenas ran to close the door.

As soon as they were alone. Mistress Williams broke down. "Ah, Nathaniel," she cried, sinking down upon a stool and covering her eyes with her hands, "I did warn ye, too! why did ye not take the oath—that little oath which might have kept ye safely at home!"

Master Williams shook his head firmly.

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 "That oath to save my property?" he asked scornfully.

Mistress Williams looked up in sudden spirit. "To save your life!" she retorted bitterly. "To keep ye at home! Your brother Benjamin did swear!"

Her husband maintained silence, and in his silence Mistress Williams read contemptuous disapproval of his brother's hypocrisy. She bowed her head and wept silently for a while. But, presently, she dried her eyes, and when her husband, seating himself upon the settle, pulled her tenderly over beside him, she went obediently and leaned her head upon his shoulder.

"Mary," he said, "ye have been a true wife to me for twenty-two years. I mind ye as a bride i' your walking-out gown!" He sighed and Mistress Mary's eyes filled with tears. "But now," he went on abruptly, "ha' we come to the parting o' our ways, for I—for I—" his voice faltered,—"I am going to New York Town to join His Majesty's army," he finished huskily.

As Sally stared in incredulous surprise, wondering if she could have heard aright, she saw Mistress Williams slowly raise her head, slowly glance down at the toil-worn hands lying limply clasped in her lap.

"And I shall stay here wi' the children," she said, in a low voice. "For I believe right to be on our

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 side—on the patriot side. Parson Chapman said it, and I do believe it! Go, if you must, Nathaniel—Til stay here!"

"I shall not urge ye to come wi' me," said Nathaniel Williams in a troubled tone. "But how will ye manage, Mary?"

"Wi' Amos's help—he be a grown man, ye forget, Nathaniel—and wi' James's help," began his wife. But Amos shook his head.

"Nay, Mother, I believe as doth my father, that 'tis disloyal to go against the King," he said quietly. "So must I go wi' him to New York Town to enlist also i' the King's army."

Sally, watching silently from the corner whither she had retreated, saw Mistress Williams's lips tighten, saw her gather together her courage. "Then, wi' James's help," she commenced again.

This time it was James who interrupted. "Nay," he cried quickly, impetuously, "the patriots be fools! I would not stay and fight a losing fight, as it must be. I, too, am going wi' our father!"

"He thinks the fun will be wi' his father and the work wi' his mother!" thought Sally contemptuously, and, glancing across the kitchen, she read the same thought in Zenas's eyes.

Mistress Williams's chin went up. "Then wi' Zenas's help," she said steadily, "and the help o' my brother Dr. Mathias, and o' your cousin Tom, who both be good Whigs, I shall manage some way.

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 We shall not lack, for wi' your co-opering business and the mills, both grist and saw, and wi' this farm, we shall ha' plenty!"

"The forfeit!" groaned Master Williams, his face buried in his hands.

"We shall cross that bridge when we come to it," responded Mistress Williams. There was a little silence, and, during it, Sally saw Zenas creep to his mother, saw her head go down for an instant upon his arm as he stood protectingly beside her. But the next instant Mistress Williams arose so briskly and spoke so cheerfully that one, not knowing, would have thought that part of her family were going for a pleasure journey, instead of setting forth never to return.

"Come, now, there be plenty and more to do, an ye leave this night! Amos, do ye look o'er your and James's linen and clothing and bring it to me for laundering and mending. James, do ye find the saddlebags. Bring them hither! Zenas, ye may bring in several buckets o' water from the brook—aye, and mend the fire, too! Nathaniel!" She turned to her husband, who still sat with his head in his hands. "Nathaniel!" she repeated, and when he raised his face and looked at her blankly, she smiled at him with tender eyes. "Do ye look o'er your papers and set all i' order, dear! Sally, look not so downhearted, lass—do ye clear the table and get the dishes out o' our way. For we ha' work—work,"

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 she raised her arms toward the ceiling and her voice broke, "thank Heaven we ha' work," she finished brokenly, "to do this night!"

Sally ran over, to drop to her knees before the other. "Oh, ye be brave," she said, with a little sob, pressing the calloused hand to her cheek. "Ye be so brave, dear mistress!"

But a little frown broke upon Mistress Williams's pale, heroic face. It was as if she could not stand sympathy just then. "No time, now, for aught but work, Sally," she said briefly, snatching her hand away and leaving the kitchen hurriedly.

Sally, hurt to the quick, was stumbling to her feet when Zenas paused behind her. "Nay, can ye not see she can bear no more!" he whispered wisely. And the girl, glancing at him, nodded and went about her work.

And how they did work that night! For long hours was the fire kept roaring, with great steaming kettles of water, slung from the crane over it, constantly being emptied, constantly being refilled. Hour after hour. Mistress Williams and Sally washed and ironed and packed and then, long past midnight, Mistress Williams kindled a fire in the Dutch oven, declaring she could not let her menfolk go without providing them dainties for their journey.

Once Sally saw the poor woman fairly reel from fatigue and sorrow, and almost stupefied, herself,

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 from lack of sleep, watched Mistress Williams drag the back of her hand dazedly across her forehead as she stood at one end of the long table thumping a flatiron to and fro. Sally staggered over to her.

"Nay, let me iron awhile! See I am not a bit weary!" she said, trying to straighten her tired young shoulders.

But Mistress Williams shook her head. "Nay," she said resolutely. "I will finish! Do ye rest awhile, Sally, till the bake oven be ready, then will I call ye!" She glanced at her husband sorting over papers, tearing up others, writing, at the other end of the table. "Can ye not rest awhile, too, Nathaniel?" she asked wistfully.

But Nathaniel Williams shook his head and turned in his armchair to look at her. The candle flame between them gave her face an unearthly beauty, and he sighed, then smiled at her. "I must leave my affairs all i' order, Mary!" he said. "At least," he sighed again sadly. "I can do that much for ye!"

"Ye be a good man," returned his wife affectionately, ironing with meticulous care the ruffles upon his best shirt. "An only ye could see the nobility o' our patriot cause and so remain at home wi' us!"

But, at that, a cloud passed over his face. "Nay," he said, "let us not spend our last hours together wi' argument!" he protested. And there was a brief silence.

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 Sally, seated upon the settle before the fire, thought she had been watching the flames for but a moment or two when Mistress Williams's low voice spoke in her ear.

"Come, Sally, an ye do wish to help me wi' the pies and a cake," whispered Mistress Williams. "Hush'ee though!" She looked warningly at the girl as Sally started to her feet, and the girl, glancing around, saw Master Williams's gray head supported upon his arms as he slumbered among his papers. The candle, which the girl thought she had noticed but a moment before as being straight and tall, flickered just then and gutted out, burnt to its very end.

Calmly, Mistress Williams took down another candle and, lighting it at the fire, replaced the first quietly, so as not to disturb her husband. Sally, busy now mixing pie crust at the table, saw his wife's hand flutter above the sleeping man's head, flutter and then drop to her side.

"Where be the boys?" whispered Sally.

Mistress Williams came to the table and, taking a cake bowl in her hand, seated herself upon a stool and commenced to stir up the pound cake she had previously gotten together in it.

"I' bed," she answered, "I sent them hours ago, Sally."

"Did I sleep long?" asked the girl, yawning.

"About two hours," answered Mistress Williams,

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 with a smile. "Poor Sally," she added, tis a marvelous cruel way to treat ye! But ye can rest the morrow!" A quick, painful sigh escaped her. "Rest—to-morrow!" she repeated, evidently thinking of the agony of sorrow which should be hers when the first shock of parting should be ended and she had time for rest—or grief!

For a little while, then, silence ensued in the big kitchen—the strange silence preceding the dawn, when the ticking of the clock, the sound of the fire can be so thunderously loud. At last Master Williams stirred, sighed, awoke, to look in profound amazement at his wife sitting there stirring together a cake in the middle of the night. Then remembrance rushed upon him, and he winced, sighed again, got heavily to his feet.

"Do'ee go to bed for a while, Nat," urged his wife.

Sally, watching her, thought again how magnificent she was in her unselfish devotion, in her standing aside and letting her husband decide for himself this problem which had come upon them. How few women would do the same under similar circumstances, how few could resist pleading their own desires!

The girl, glancing at her ever and anon, as Master Williams yielded to his wife's pleading and dragged himself off to bed, was overwhelmed by remorse as she thought of her unjust suspicions

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 toward this noble woman. How could anyone be more patriotic than she! Certainly, no one in that valley or upon that mountain!

It was the final hours, just before daylight, which were hardest for Sally. Stupidly, she opened the oven door, standing ready with her shovel to drag out crisp, browned pies and cakes, to place them for cooling upon the hearth away from the fire.

She could scarcely believe it was dawn when the candles flickered out and the few windows began to show silver-white in the smoke-darkened walls. Yawning, hardly knowing what she was doing, Sally set the table for an early breakfast and watched Mistress Williams preparing the breakfast porridge.

"Best call the boys!" said their mother finally. "Or, stay"—she gave the porridge spoon into Sally's limp hand—"I will call them. 'Tis—'tis for the last time—I shall—call—my boys!" And choking, she hurried from the room.

Sally stirred the porridge mechanically. It was almost as though death had entered this house! Truly, the war had sundered this family as completely as death! Truly, it was now neighbor against neighbor, friend against friend, family against family! And Sally, sighing and stirring, nodded as she stirred.

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HE day of the vendue dawned bright and clear—a beautiful one in early autumn. For weeks, now, the question had been discussed throughout the Mountain settlement and on the adjoining plantations: Should not Mistress Williams, patriot though she declared herself to be and patriot though all knew her to be—should she not be forced to give up her fine farm, her mills, her co-opering business, and be forced to flee with her husband and sons? Should not all this property go to enrich the State, whose coffers were empty, as had all the possessions left by other loyalists who, like Master WillliamsWilliams [sic], refused to take the oath and had been banished? Early and late had this matter been topic for conversation, most of the people, to do them justice, declaring that, under the circumstances, it was only fair to allow Mistress Williams to retain what had been left her by her husband at his flight.

Mistress Williams, herself, had maintained an air of placid confidence in public, as though there was

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 no question to be made of the subject. No one knew, of course, what long night hours she might spend in prayer or in weeping; but certainly each morning she had emerged from her room with little Nathaniel in her arms, to face her world with cheerfulness upon her face.

It was only at first that Sally saw that her superhuman bravery was really the bravery of utter despair. For upon that fatal morning when her sons had told her farewell, when Master Williams had strained her to his heart and, mounting his horse, had ridden away without one backward glance. Mistress Williams had stood as though turned to stone upon the doorstep, her hands pressed against her heart, her eyes strange and staring until at last, with a pitiful gesture, Zenas had managed to get her back into the kitchen and had made her drink the hot milk Sally had ready, and so, gradually, had won her back to normal actions.

But that had been only at first. From that day on. Mistress Williams had gone forward with both dignity and courage. Sally had an idea both had been augmented by a certain momentous conversation that Mistress Williams had had one day with Master Joseph Hedden, who, as president of the Appraisement Committee, had ridden out from the Town by the River to confer with her. He had told her calmly that, according to law, which was no respecter of persons, the property must be confis-

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 cated. But as for the vendue, that was another affair altogether!

"What do ye mean, Master Hedden?" Mistress Williams had asked, her toil-worn hands clasped in her lap. She had leaned forward anxiously to ask this; and behind her, upon a three-legged stool, Sally had leaned forward anxiously, too, for the girl knew that, if poor Mistress Williams lost her property, she would be cast upon her relatives, with her children, for never, never would she willingly flee to the protection of the British, as her husband had done.

"I mean," Master Hedden had told her gravely, "that, considering the circumstances, an no one bids against ye, you will be allowed to buy back all of your property, dear mistress, for the bare costs of the vendue."

"And that is?" Mistress Williams had queried hopefully.

"That will be about five pounds!"

Twenty-five dollars! Of course, that was absurd, in the face of the valuable property involved. At last Mistress Williams, who had been staring straight ahead of her with relief plainly written upon her face, turned and looked at her caller gratefully.

"You are kind, indeed, sir, to tell me so soon," she said quietly. "I—I can stand aught that befalls an I know I shall not be dependent at this time o' my life!"

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 "Madam." Master Hedden had answered, rising to go, "ye have worked hard to acquire this fortune. As hard, I warrant, as your husband. Why, then, should ye not be permitted to retain it?" He held out his hand to her.

"Not all may think as ye!" Mistress Williams had answered sadly, rising and taking his hand to curtsey. But Sally could see that this talk had been a great help to her during the weeks which followed.

Everyone flew around this morning of the vendue. Sally, who had gone back to the Balls upon Mistress Ball's due return from Morris Town, had been loaned for the occasion, as it were, and had ridden over the day before to help Mistress Williams in any way she could.

"Now, Baby," implored Sally, kneeling beside the cradle where lay a screaming, kicking little tyrant, "do let Sally put on your clean gown! So many people do be coming this morn, and ye—oh, please, sweetheart!"

Mistress Williams, entering hurriedly, still trying to clasp with nervous shaking fingers the brooch at her kerchief crossing, approached the cradle.

"There, Sally," she said, "I will dress little Nat. Do ye finish wi' the kitchen. Where be Zenas?"

"Zenas be out wi' the horses. Master Alling did ride up from the Town by the River to obtain the horses he let us have, ye remember, and partly, I think, he wanted to attend the sale," responded

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 Sally, rising to her feet and fastening the brooch for Mistress Williams.

Mistress Williams fixed puzzled eyes upon her face. "Horses he let ye have?" she repeated.

"Aye, the day o' that battle at Newark," nodded Sally.

"Oh, of course!" Mistress Williams stood silent a moment, a shade crossing her face. "Sally," she said in a low tone. The girl turned at the anxiety in her voice. "Sally, think ye—think ye there be—anyone planning to bid against us?"

Sally shook a decided head. "Nay," she said gently, "ye ha' been too brave all these weeks, dear mistress, to worry at this late hour!"

The other closed her eyes wearily. "I know," she said, in a smothered voice, "I know—I ha' been brave on the outside! I have tried to show my confidence i' the God o' Right by not fretting. But, suppose—oh, suppose, mayhap, some unknown enemy be present! What defense ha' I against his bidding? Why, he might ruin me! And then shall I be cast out, penniless." She fixed burning, restless eyes upon Sally. "Ye do not know how horrible," she continued, "how awful it be to be dependent upon relatives!"

Sally backed away suddenly. "Say ye that to me?" she answered, with a slight bitter laugh. "To me, who have known naught but dependence! And that not upon relatives, who at least have the same

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 blood i' their veins; but upon strangers—some o' whom have not—cared!"

"Ah, poor child, I did hurt ye!" cried Mistress Williams remorsefully. She followed Sally to the corner whither the girl had retreated in sudden passionate weeping. Tears were in the lady's eyes, too, as she bent and kissed the other. "Truly, I did not mean to hurt ye!" she apologized gently. "Indeed I did not!"

Sally dried her eyes. "I know ye did not," she answered. "And why I weep when I ha' such friends as ye and Mistress Ball, I know not. Mayhap," she stared off into space with brooding gaze, tis because I have known peace wi' you and do dread a return to what lay before!"

"Aye?" Mistress Williams watched her with quiet eyes, In which compassion lay deep.

"I mean," said Sally stormily, "I mean that, much as I do long to see Master Todd again, much as I long to know that he be safe and not dying, mayhap, upon some enemy prison ship—I could live forever, without one regret, an I never saw—Mistress Todd again!"

"Poor child!" murmured Mistress Williams, tucking up the riotous curls beneath Sally's cap as she spoke. She had forgotten her own anxieties in those of Sally's. But all at once the clamor of her little son broke out again. Ignored, he had fallen to placidly sucking his thumb. Now, however, sud-

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 denly realizing his neglect, he broke into a series of terrific howls which brought his mother to his side in short order.

"There, there!" she exclaimed, picking him up. She laughed as she looked into his puckered, crimsoned little face, and laughed still more when, catching sight of Sally, he commenced to gurgle and babble her name, with the tears still wet upon his smiling cheeks.

Sally, smiling back, felt better in spite of herself, and soon was moving briskly about her work. It was early still, yet neighbors might soon be gathering, and it were well to have everything in perfect order.

Presently Zenas, followed by Master Alling, entered the kitchen. Mistress Williams, hastily replacing the baby, now cleanly garbed, in his cradle, and giving him a rag doll to play with, rose and dropped a curtsey to match the one Sally smilingly bestowed upon the young man.

"So ye were the kind gentleman, forsooth, who helped out my young folk that day i' Newark," she said graciously, advancing to him.

"Nay," he protested laughingly, bending over the hand she extended him. Twas the young folk who helped me, madam! Though the British did not return to the Town that day, they might have, and though they did not find my horses the first time, the second time they e'en might have! So, ye

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 see!" And he gave such an eloquent shrug and laughed so merrily, they all joined in.

But now a shadow darkened the door, and Sally, glancing up, uttered a low cry, for she had the strange hallucination that Stockton was standing there, staring at her. It was only an ancient beldame, however, bent forward beneath the weight of her years upon a cane she tapped before her and gazing curiously around her from the depths of the enormous poke bonnet she wore.

"Be this the place advertised for sale?" she cackled, in a high, quavering voice.

While Zenas muttered at himself for not having closed the door after him, Mistress Williams drew herself up proudly. Then she noticed the other's years and refrained from the sharp reply which trembled upon her tongue.

"Aye, mistress," she answered civilly.

"Mind ye an, perchance, I take a look around," pursued the aged hag, obviously preparing to advance into the kitchen.

"Why" began Mistress Williams dubiously.

But Sally took an impulsive step forward. "Nay!" she exclaimed, glancing from Mistress Williams to the old woman. "Why should she be allowed to poke and pry, dear mistress? She doth not understand the terms of this vendue, forsooth! May I explain them to her?" Then at Mistress Williams's nod, the girl turned swiftly to the old

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 woman, only to fall back amazed. For she thought she saw venomous fire and youth staring at her from the depths of the poke bonnet. The next instant the old dame's eyes were studiously regarding the pattern of the sanded floor and Sally, telling herself that she had imagined too much, once more advanced a step. "Ye do not understand, grandame," she said, briskly kind. "This farm be forfeit to the law, 'tis true. Yet is the owner only to bid—no one else! There is to be offered no opposition to that one bid!"

"How so?" demanded the old woman sourly. "Be this not a public vendue, whereto all ha' been invited by public notice? Then 'tis not likely the owner, who hath been liable under the law, will be allowed to retain it!"

"Still," said Sally hotly, all of her brisk, cool kindliness vanishing at this unexpected opposition, thinking that never in all her life had she seen quite such a disagreeable old lady, "still 'tis understood, I tell ye, grandame, there is to be no other bid than hers!"

"Well, we shall see, we shall see," muttered the old woman. And turning abruptly away, she hobbled off. Sally, watching her from the door, gave indignant report of her movements.

"Why," cried Sally, "she be examining every bush and tree as though she were expecting to

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 purchase this place! Now she be looking, with an air o' ownership, across the garden! Now she be peering down the well! Now she be hobbling toward the barn!"

"Say ye so!" Zenas turned toward the door. "She may be a thief, for a' we know. I'll go wi' her—prying old fingers could steal and hide beneath that ragged cape much o' value that be lying loose around the barn!"

They all laughed at Zenas's angry bounce as he departed; but soon Sally saw soberness returning to Mistress Williams's countenance. "I wish this vendue were well over," she sighed nervously, smoothing down her gown with trembling fingers. "This incident but shows how we be at the mercy o' any who come!"

"Fear not, mistress!" said John Alling sympathetically. "For every enemy—though I doubt the existence o' one for such a sweet lady—ye will ha' twenty friends present this morn!"

Mistress Williams acknowledged his compliment with a faint smile. "Still, sir," she sighed, "I wish it were already night, wi' the vendue well o'er!"

Sally, who had moved over to the window after Zenas had closed the door behind him, now turned to them. "People be driving in from every direction," she announced, excitement in her voice. Tis just as though a signal had been given! Oh,

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 such a throng! I suppose in the direction o' the settlement the turn o' the road hath hidden them till now!"

Mistress Williams gave a nervous shudder. "Say ye so—they do come?" she exclaimed, in a high-pitched voice which showed the strain she had been enduring. "Is't that late already?" And her glance traveled distastefully to the corner clock.

"Yet were ye wishing the vendue well o'er!" John Alling laughed softly at her inconsistence, trying to cheer her. He turned as Joseph Hedden entered the kitchen.

"Good-morrow, all," said Master Hedden cheerfully. He advanced and took the cold hand Mistress Williams tremulously extended to him. "What!" he exclaimed, keen eyes upon hers. "Not fretting, mistress, I hope! Tut! Tut!" He clucked his tongue chidingly. "After what I did tell ye?"

"I know," she answered, coloring faintly. "Yet suppose"

"Suppose naught!" returned Master Hedden roundly. "Ye ha' many friends out yon, madam!"

"E'en what I was telling her!" interrupted John Alling reassuringly.

"Ye all be good to me!" said Mistress Williams simply. She gave a quick, labored sigh. "And truly will I try—not to fret!" Her voice died away upon the last three words and only Sally, who stood

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 behind her, saw her hands clench for a moment in the folds of her gown. The next moment Mistress Willi ams turned a bright face toward her. "Shall we go forth, Sally, and greet our good friends?" she suggested. "Fetch me my cardinal from yonder peg, and do ye don your cape, my dear, for 'tis sharp out. The hoar frost lay thick upon the ground this early morn!"

Sally, about to follow Mistress Williams out into the garden, whither a throng had gathered, as she had reported, was stopped by a straight-shouldered, fine-looking man, uniformed in blue, who came briskly up the stepping stones toward her.

"Why, Captain Littell!" exclaimed the girl in friendly greeting. "Is't you, indeed!"

"So ye do remember me," returned the leader of the Jersey Blues, with a pleased smile. "Aye," he continued, "methought this vendue should be attended by some o' our men!" And Sally, following his significant glance, saw a number of blue-uniformed men strolling through the crowd.

"Why" began Sally, her eyes upon the muskets carelessly displayed upon blue-clad arms.

"E'en so," smiled Captain Littell. "Is Major Alling within?" he added quietly, nodding toward the kitchen door.

"Wi' Master Hedden," Sally told him. Then she flew after Mistress Williams, new-found hope and relief in her girlish breast.

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 Mistress Williams was talking to her friend, Esther Ball, and to Uzal Ball when Sally came hurrying up, and turned in some surprise to glance at the girl's shining eyes and rosy cheeks. Her own gaze traveled to Uzal's face, and though she found pleasure there, when she looked back at Sally, she knew at once that that young bachelor was not the cause of the girl's obvious delight. Indeed, Sally paid not the slightest attention to him as she stood with clasped hands before them, her eager gaze upon Mistress Williams.

"Why, Sally lass," said Mistress Ball indulgently, "hast no words for Uzal or me this morn?"

Sally, at that, took and squeezed the hand her friend held out to her and dropped Uzal a hasty curtsey, then turned once more to Mistress Williams.

"Well, speak, child!" laughed that lady. Tis plain ye be dying to tell me something! Is't aught o' great importance?" And she exchanged a confidential glance with Mistress Ball.

"Oh, dear mistress," gasped Sally, "Captain Littell hath e'en now arrived!"

"Captain Littell?" A puzzled look dawned upon Mistress Williams's face. She shook her head in impatient denial of knowledge of his identity.

"Captain Littell o' the 'Jersey Blues, explained Uzal, at this point. He looked meaningly at her. "Why, then, wi' his men—and here be one,

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 now!—circulating the throng, there will be none who dare to bid against ye!"

"Aye?" Mistress Williams gazed eagerly after the blue-clad figure which, musket in elbow-crook, had just brushed past her. She turned relievedly to Sally. "Ye be right," she said smilingly. Tis good news, indeed, ye do bring me!"

Now there was stir among the crowd. Everyone commenced to move toward the kitchen door as it opened, and Master Hedden, followed by John Alling and Captain Littell, came out and established himself upon the doorstep. There was a suppressed murmur of excitement through the gathering. Sally, who stood to one side, in the foreground, with Mistress Williams and her friend and Uzal, glanced inquiringly around for Zenas; but she did not see him until the vendue was formally declared open by Master Hedden. Then she saw the boy at a distance, stalking after that same ancient hag who had appeared in the kitchen door and who now hurried from the direction of the barn with surprising agility and speed for one so old. Reaching the throng, the old woman melted into its outskirts, and Zenas, glimpsing Sally's beckoning finger, came around the edge of the crowd and stood, his arms belligerently folded, beside his mother.

Sally longed to whisper in his ear, so set and grim was his pale young face; but she did not dare,

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 in the foreground as she was. Too many curious eyes were upon her to make her aught but self-conscious and afraid to speak.

Master Hedden first read the proclamation known as the Amnesty Act, which had been passed by the Legislature on June 5, 1777. This act, as has been explained, provided forgiveness to all those who would swear allegiance to the patriot cause before it expired.

"And now," Joseph Hedden looked slowly around him, "ye have been advised by public notice that this land, belonging to one Nathaniel Williams, hath been forfeit to the State, inasmuch as the owner thereof did not swear to the prescribed oath, did, instead, flee this State o' New Jersey and take refuge wi' the enemy i' New York Town. Therefore, I declare this man's property be confiscated and open now to bids i' course o' vendue!"

Silence. Throughout that throng of at least five hundred people it might be said that almost one could have heard a leaf dropping to the earth. Involuntarily, eyes rolled toward those muskets displayed here and there, and no one spoke a word. Mistress Williams stood with tense mouth, and eyes burning in her white face. At last Master Hedden looked toward her inquiringly.

"As president o' the Appraisement Committee, I do stand here ready to receive bids," he suggested.

Zenas nudged his mother. "Speak, Ma!" he whis-

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 pered hoarsely. "Master Hedden be a-waiting ye!"

Still silence dwelt upon that crowd. More silence. Until, all at once, a high, quavering old voice cackled out, at the rear of the gathering. "I do bid"

There was an outburst of laughter. A slight turmoil occurred in that vicinity. And the shrill old voice was stilled so abruptly that one might have imagined that a hand, emerging from a blue sleeve, had been clamped none too gently over the aged one's mouth. In the pause which followed. Master Hedden again looked toward Mistress Williams. And this time, her head held high, Nathaniel Williams's wife stepped forward and in a low but perfectly clear voice, offered the sum of five pounds for all that confiscated property!

Master Hedden accepted this offer so quickly that it might have been viewed with suspicion, had there not been quite so many blue uniforms about. As it was, the ancient beldame, who had been laughingly hustled off the grounds by two of the "Jersey Blues," could be heard muttering and grumbling to herself as she hobbled off down the road. However, had those same "Blues" followed her far, they might have been both surprised and interested, for entering a certain ravine, the old woman presently came out a young man, who briskly started off again toward the Mountain settlement!

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 But now the muskets, which had been so prominently displayed, were slung up out of the way and the vendue turned into an outdoor reception, with Mistress Williams holding gracious levee upon her doorstep.

When the final guest had departed—all save Mistress Ball and Uzal—Mary Williams turned to the bright young face at her elbow.

"Ah, Sally," she sighed, catching the girl's mittened hands in hers, "I know not what I shall do wi'out ye! 'Twill be a lonely house wi'out Sally!"

Mistress Ball looked at her reproachfully. "But think how drear our house would be wi'out the maid!" she said.

Sally stood looking dubiously from one to another. Were they making fun of her? Then, suddenly—and her heart sung with the knowledge!—she understood that she had been missed, indeed—and that now she was wanted! Wanted! She who had eaten the ungracious bread of begrudging hospitality!

"And ye ha' young people left i' your house!" went on Mistress Ball gently. "Nay, Mary, lure the maid not away from me!"

"Aye, 'tis true! Yet shall we all miss ye! Farewell, Sally!" sighed Mistress Williams, while Zenas said a bashful farewell over his mother's shoulder.

"Farewell, dear mistress!" answered Sally, wondering why she felt so much like weeping, when she

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 should have felt like singing, like shouting, with that wonderful knowledge that she was wanted—somewhere!

So, turning, she walked away between Uzal and his mother, very slim, very pretty—and still very young! So young that she rushed back to throw affectionate arms around Mistress Williams's neck, to implant a kiss upon the astonished and rather resentful Zenas's cheek, and rush away again!

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NE morning Sally sat up and looked about her blinkingly. Where was she? This was not her little room beneath the eaves at Master Todd's! Nor was it the room she had shared with one of the younger Williams children at the Tory Corners house! Then remembrance rushed upon her, and she lay down again with a smile.

She was in the built-in bed between the chimney and the wall which she had been sharing with Mistress Ball in the long room directly over the kitchen of the Ball house. The bed was like a modern Pullman car berth, partitioned off from the rest of the bedchamber by wood and entered through a narrow door which could be latched behind the occupants. A tiny window, directly over the kitchen door, through which General Washington had escaped with his horse the May evening of Sally's arrival, gave both light and air to the queer cubbyhole, while the great chimney at the girl's feet in winter time might have been very pleasant with its heat, but this rather warm autumn morning

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 was quite superfluous, for Indian summer had come upon New Jersey.

Presently, a noise in the room outside the built-in bed seemed to indicate that Sally had overslept. She sat up and, pushing open the door, laughingly thrust out her nightcapped head. It was Rachel Ball, busily mopping up the wide, uneven floor boards, who greeted her.

"Overslept?" repeated Rachel, in answer to Sally's sleepy question. "Well, not much, my dear. 'Tis six o'clock, of course; but Mother and Uzal got up extra early—four o'clock—for Uzal be going to Morris Town this day."

"Aye?" Sally sprang out and began to dress, shivering a little when the morning breeze struck her through a window Rachel had opened to air the room.

"Aye," returned Rachel idly, eying the glorious mop of curls Sally kept thrusting impatiently up beneath her nightcap. "What hair ye have! 'Tis really a most unusual shade, Sally!"

"The Holden red!" quoted Sally ironically.

"What?" Rachel glanced at her, wrung out her wet floor cloth, and swished it briskly over the floor.

"Nothing!" exclaimed Sally hastily. "I was but jesting! Go on, Ray!"

"H'm, where was I?" Rachel bent her brow.

"Ye said Uzal was going to Morris Town," Sally reminded her.

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 "Oh, aye! Well, that case o' the red-coat comes up before the Council o' Safety to-day; ye know, the young red-coat who escaped and was caught i' Newark not many weeks ago. Since Master Todd be not yet home, Sheriff Carmichæl hath requested Uzal to appear as a witness against the youth. And so"

But here Rachel stopped short and stared. Sally had scrambled into her gown and had shot out of the door and down the three steps into the central hall and thence down the porch steps like a rabbit trying to escape the swoop of a hawk. Her clear young voice presently floated up to Rachel Ball's listening ears.

"Uzal! Oh, Uzal, take me wi' ye to Morris Town!"

"Well"—Rachel shook her head critically—"must say the lass lacks not boldness, forsooth!"

Downstairs, beneath the big walnut tree, Uzal, already mounted upon his horse, though still conversing with his mother, looked with amused eyes at Sally's dishevelled figure flying toward him. The Widow Ball turned in surprise and some displeasure.

"Why, Sally, whatever put such an idea i' your head?" she said reprovingly.

But Uzal came unexpectedly to Sally's help. "Let her come, Mother! The company will be pleasant for me, and I will vouch her safe return!

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 Besides, now that I think o't, she might be needed as a witness, though the sheriff did not mention bringing her," he said.

Mistress Ball hesitated as she glanced at Sally's beseeching face. "But the lass has had no breakfast!" she protested.

Sally clasped her hands. "Give me but a little bread—'twill be more than enough!" she pleaded, and at last Mistress Ball, who had the kindest heart in the world, nodded her head.

"Best take your cape, Sally. We may return late, and these nights sometimes turn cool!" advised Uzal then. "I will go and saddle another horse while ye make ready!"

Half an hour later, they were trotting out of Millburn village, well on their way along the narrow bridle path to what is Morris turnpike at this present day. Now, when they reached it, they found it to be a country road much like the lane which led past the Ball house; but it was wider than the bridle path through the Short Hills and here they could trot side by side. Along they went, up over the Sow's Back at Summit, the ridge Washington used as a signalling station for the Continental Army, through Chatham village, over the Bottle Hill at Madison, and so on into Morris Town.

Wending their way into that lovely village, nestled among its hills, Uzal guided his horse di-

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 rectly to the Arnold Tavern, which had been used by General Washington for his headquarters during the previous winter. Sally, waiting outside upon her horse while Uzal entered the inn, glanced up curiously at the windows of the room used by His Excellency as a bedroom. This room, as well as a second small room he used as his office, adjoined the long assembly room over the inn kitchen—the assembly room which was to be used afterward, during the army's second winter quartering at Morris Town, for the fetes and routs planned by the gay young French and American officers stationed there.

Presently, Uzal emerged from the tavern and pointed at the windows at which Sally had been gazing. "Did ye know that, i' that modest little room. His Excellency was lying sick almost unto death last winter?" he asked. "He was so ill that 'twas rumored he had selected his successor. General Greene, when Madame Washington arrived and nursed him back to health!"

"What a good wife she must be, despite her wealth!" exclaimed Sally, staring back over her shoulder at the tavern as they trotted away toward the Morris Town green.

"Wealth has naught to do wi' it," answered Uzal, smiling. "Mayhap ye will ha' opportunity to peep into those rooms later, Sally, which some

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 day will be famous, for I ha' made arrangements to return there for dinner wi' Master Arnold."

"Oh, that will be fun!" Sally gave an excited little bounce in her saddle. She was destined, however, as we shall see, not to visit the little tavern rooms that day.

Drawing rein before the court house upon the village green, Uzal alighted from his horse. "Ye might walk about the green while I be inside, Sally," he suggested.

Sally looked at him in keen disappointment. "Am I not going inside," she inquired dismally.

Uzal could not resist a smile at her doleful face. "Not yet," he consoled her. "I must first see an ye can be admitted."

Sally had scarcely turned away when he came to the court-house door and beckoned to her. As soon as she came up to him, having turned back and discovered his crooked finger, he spoke dryly: Tis well I brought ye. Your name be upon the list o' witnesses against the red-coat, Sally. My friend John Martin, who be door man here, did show me."

"Against Jerry?" Sally stopped short upon her way into the court house and looked up innocently at her escort. "Why, Uzal, be that why ye came to Morris Town?"

"Aye." Uzal looked at her keenly, but her face

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 showed only bland surprise. Taking her by the arm, the young man led her past the doorkeeper into the court room where, seating herself upon the edge of the chair, Sally gazed about her curiously.

Five men were seated in the big room, while a sixth, clad in the uniform of a Continental officer, was upon his feet, speaking, obviously summing up orders just given verbally to him by the chairman of the council.

"This being correct. Governor Livingston, Mr. Condict, gentlemen, I bid ye good-morning," finished the officer. He bowed and was gone, and the governor, who had come from Elizabeth Town to preside at this meeting, turned to the newcomers and bowed sternly in response to Uzal, who rose to his feet and bowed respectfully in his direction.

"Master Uzal Ball"—the governor glanced down at a paper lying before him upon the table—"wilt kindly relate the circumstances surrounding the arrest o' one Gerald Lawrence listed here as Tory spy serving i' His Majesty's Army."

Uzal did so, in simple, straightforward language which Sally could not help noticing impressed his hearers. He did not, however, correct the impression that Jerry was a Tory and a spy!

"Thank you, sir," said Governor Livingston, when Uzal came to a stop. "Now, mistress, please tell me what ye know o' the case. Ye are listed as

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 bond maid, serving i' Master Todd's family at the time o' this Tory's first arrest. Is this true?"

"Aye, sir, true enough concerning me," responded Sally in her low, clear voice, "but not true regarding Master Lawrence!" She raised her head and looked steadily at the governor. Uzal suppressed an exclamation and half arose to his feet. As the others glanced curiously at him, he flushed a dull red and reseated himself. Sally was conscious of his burning glance upon her during the rest of her recital; but she kept on, speaking slowly and distinctly and trying to marshal her facts to bring about belief in her statements, for Jerry was her friend and Jerry must not go to the sordid death of a hangman's noose on Morris Town green. "Not true about Master Lawrence, sir! He is an Englishman, sir, enlisted overseas, the ward o' Lord Holden, according to his own statement, and entitled, since he wore his uniform and was arrested as a British officer, to being treated as prisoner o' war, not as a Tory or a spy, sir!"

Governor Livingston adjusted the spectacles he wore and stared down at the paper before him. "Why, this be strange!" he exclaimed. "Here be Gerald Lawrence, Tory, and committed to the jail as such. Who escorted the prisoner to the Town by the River? Did you, Master Ball? This be your name I think, signed to these papers."

"I did escort the prisoner to Newark, in lieu o'

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 Master Todd, who, an I remember, had to return home unexpectedly because o' an accident to his wife. But I did not commit him to jail, sir, for he escaped. Afterward, he was recaptured—'twas the battle at Newark when he was arrested by one Master Alling, sir. He was listed as Tory afterward, at my request, for I believe him to be Tory! As for his fabulous tale o' being a ward o' Lord Holden's, sir—ha, that rich, indeed! He be naught but a spy, sir, and" But here Uzal, who had leaped to his feet and ranted this out in a loud voice, was interrupted by the governor.

"I believe I ha' asked ye but the one question, which ye did answer, Master Ball," he said ironically. "What ye believe, sir, does not concern any o' this council. Have the prisoner brought before us, Master Martin, so that we may form our own beliefs!" He turned to the doorkeeper; but before Master Martin could move, Uzal's voice rang out triumphantly.

"The prisoner be lying ill unto death wi' the plague," he said.

Governor Livingston frowned. "He hath the smallpox?" he questioned.

Uzal nodded. "Aye, sir."

"Where is he confined."

"I' the Presbyterian church, sir, which the army ha' been using as a hospital for the plague wi' Parson Johnnes's permission," answered Uzal.

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 "How knew ye o't?" Governor Livingston looked at the young farmer quite sharply over his spectacles.

Uzal flushed, but answered readily enough. "Master Arnold told me, sir, o' the facts. I cannot say how he knew, but gossip ever makes its rounds, sir."

Governor Livingston tapped the table as he pondered, then he glanced dryly at his colleagues. "Gentlemen, 'tis strange ways we receive our information at times. Tap-room gossip is not always o' the brew! I suggest that Master Martin be sent to verify this news o' the prisoner and later report to us. Also report why we were not sooner informed o' this Lawrence's illness." He looked inquiringly at the others, who nodded. "Then, gentlemen, we are adjourned for the noon hour and will convene this afternoon at two. Master Ball, you and the young lady also are requested to appear here at that hour." And Governor Livingston arose from behind his table with an air of relief.

Sally glanced more than once at Uzal's dark, set face as they mounted their horses and rode back to the Arnold Tavern. She was sincerely sorry to have offended the young man, both on his mother's account and on his, for he had been very kind to the little bond maid during the time she had been staving at the Ball house. But her whole sense of justice cried out against what he had tried to do.

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 She tried hard, as she rode along beside Uzal Ball, to believe that he had performed this wrong from a mistaken sense of patriotism, that he had actually believed Gerald Lawrence to have been lying when telling of his guardian, Lord Holden. Yet Sally was going to try her best to keep Uzal from performing a crime in the guise of patriotic zeal, the crime of convicting Jerry Lawrence of being a traitor against a country whose citizenship he had never claimed.

Uzal spoke shortly to her when they drew rein before the Arnold Tavern. "Stay upon your steed, Sally. I be going in to countermand my order for dinner here and go over to Dickerson's Tavern. Governor Livingston is to dine here and 'twould not be pleasant to remain, under the present circumstances."

Plainly Uzal was smarting beneath a sense of hurt, because his word had been doubted by the governor. As for Sally, the meager breakfast she had partaken of had left her ravenously hungry, and she could only hope that Captain Dickerson's cook would not keep them waiting long.

As they turned their horses' heads toward Dickerson's, on what is now Spring Street at the corner of Water Street, Sally looked with interested eyes at the fine-appearing inn, with its many large windows across the front of the building, with its beautiful door and the inevitable Colonial decoration of side lights and fan-shaped

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 glass over the door, and with the iron railings that ran across the large stone stoop, forcing one to use the steps which had been built at one side of the stoop. A large well, with the picturesque well sweep of those days, together with the great chimneys of the inn, completed this picture of snug prosperity in 1777.

Inside the inn there was an air of cool peace in contrast to the bright sunshine and busy scene outside, and presently the unexpected guests were summoned to a bountifully spread dinner which satisfied even Sally's sharp appetite.

Captain Dickerson, a fine-looking man of about fifty-three, a member of the Provincial Congress in 1776, was present. Stealing furtive glances at him from beneath her long lashes, Sally was at last surprised in one, and she blushed when he smiled. Uzal spoke at that moment, however, and the host shifted his gaze to the young man.

"I understand," said Uzal, "that your company—the Fifth Company, Third Battalion, was it not?—was the one whose men reënlisted in a body that time last year when so many men declined to reënlist?"

Captain Dickerson smiled at this heavy compliment; but he acknowledged it with only a slight bow and then went on modestly to speak of other matters. Sally, noting how this was lost upon Uzal, who tried persistently to bring back the sub-

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 ject, thinking to please the other, thought at once of Jerry Lawrence and his quick, delicate perception. She sighed as she thought sadly of the young Englishman lying so sick at this moment among strangers!

Raising her glance, her eyes rested inadvertently upon a lackey who had entered just then and was bending over Captain Dickerson to deliver a message. Sally stared. There was something familiar about that back! Then, as the man turned around, their eyes met. It was Stockton!

At once the Tory leaped toward the window, but Sally was at his heels. Seizing his coat, she cried out to the astonished Captain Dickerson, who was staring at this strange behavior of his servant. It took only a second for Uzal and the host to recover their wits; but during that second Stockton slipped out of the sleeves of the coat Sally was grasping and, leaping through the open window, was away.

"A spy!" gasped Sally, half crying. "A Tory spy, sir! Oh, why," she wrung her hands bitterly, "why did not someone stop him!"

At that moment a shot down the village lane rang out. The girl's hands dropped slowly to her sides. The two men stared at each other. Then Captain Dickerson stepped to the window and looked out. "Mistress," he said then, turning around, "there is no spy left now, to our knowledge, i' Morris

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 Town! Someone other than yourself must have suspected this servant's identity!"

"Ye mean" Sally's face whitened with horror. What the other meant seemed impossible in the sweet, bright sunshine! It could not possibly be true!

"I mean the man ye dubbed a spy has gone to his final accounting," returned Captain Dickerson soberly. "He has but now been shot by an American soldier. Wilt look?" And he stepped aside for Sally to see.

"Nay!" Sally covered her face with her hands and shrank away. "Oh, this dreadful war!" she half sobbed.

Uzal moved forward impatiently. "There be better causes for weeping than the death o' a Tory spy, Sally," he said harshly. "Come, we must be returning to the court house!"

This dreadful war! All of its somber gloom seemed invested in the court room when Sally and Uzal resumed their places there. Clouds in the blue sky through the small, many-paned windows were blotting out the sunshine; and as Governor Livingston came in and took his chair to resume the trial, a quick patter of raindrops beat in a little gust against the window glass.

Soon the name of Gerald Lawrence was called out, and the doorkeeper stepped to the front. "I beg leave to report to your honor that the state-

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 ment that Gerald Lawrence be confined to the hospital wi' the plague be true, sir," he said, in a level voice.

"Then he is not able to appear before this council?" Governor Livingston scowled.

The doorkeeper shook his head. "He is dying, sir!"

There was a shocked moment of silence. Sally's eyes crept across a crack in the ceiling—what a crooked crack it was! Jerry was dying! Through a daze the words came to her. Jerry was dying—her friend! This dreadful war! All the sunshine was blotted out! But, no, that was the weather—just a shower—the sun would come out again, if not to-day, then to-morrow. But, Jerry—why, she might never see that nice smile again, that flash of white teeth and the merry brown eyes! It was Jerry, her friend, who the doorkeeper had said was dying! She turned a blank gaze upon Governor Livingston, rose mechanically to her feet when the governor briefly dismissed them, and thanked Uzal for coming from the Mountain settlement to testify.

Uzal, silently helping her upon her horse after carefully cloaking her, felt a little pang of pity at sight of her pale, set young face. She was young, after all, prone to make mistakes. His pity melted the bitterness he had felt toward her for trying to testify for instead of against the young red-coat! After all, he thought, the lad had not been half bad.

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 He was pleasant enough, though—and here Uzal's lips thinned fanatically—he should be restrained, of course. And Sally, warm-hearted, impetuous, was only to blame as a friendly little kitten might be blamed, not sternly, certainly not punished.

So, as they plodded through Morris Town on horseback, with the rain beating down upon them, Uzal was careful to converse lightly, to point out all the places of interest. That was Parson Johnnes's house—yes, that fine-looking one—and there the orchard where he had held services for the soldiers outdoors behind his house while his church was being used as a hospital for their fellows. And here was the home o' Parson Johnnes's daughter, now Mistress. Theodocia Ford, the widow o' that wonderful officer Colonel Jacob Ford. All the winter of 1777, General Washington's bodyguard had been stationed in her mansion, fairly near to the Arnold Tavern.

Sally raised her somber glance to the Ford mansion as they passed it. It was a fine big house, typical of that period with its great chimneys upon each end and its wide center door indicative of the wide central hallway inside. It stood upon an eminence with beautiful grounds surrounding it.

But Sally's glance did not linger. Once more she fell to picturing poor Jerry lying upon a pallet, upon the floor of the Presbyterian church; and she neither noticed nor cared what Uzal was say-

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 now of one essence, and now of another, but always remains a hypostasis of both hypotases indivisibly and inseparably The flesh of God the Word did not assume an independent hypostasis and did not become a hypostasis, different from the hypostasis of God the Word, but having in it received a hypostasis, was rather received into the hypostasis of God the Word than became an independent hypostasis.’” (p. 79.)

It is absolutely impossible to render this into one’s own words: it is simply the delirium of an insane man. The Trinity in one person breaks up into two, and these two are again one.

“III. Holy Scripture presents the firmest foundations of this truth. It teaches: (1) that in Christ Jesus, with two essences, a divine and a human, there is one hypostasis, one person, and (2) that this hypostasis of the Word or of the Son of God, having accepted and united with itself the human hypostasis with the divine, abides inseparably as one hypostasis of either essence.” (pp. 79 and 80.)

All that is confirmed by Holy Scripture, the fathers of the church, and the decrees of the councils.

Finally common sense, too, is invoked:

“IV. And common sense, on the basis of theological principles, cannot help but notice that the Nestorian heresy, which divided Jesus Christ into two persons, absolutely rejects the mystery of the incarnation and the mystery of the redemption. If the divinity and the humanity in Christ are not united into one hypostasis, but form two separate persons, if the Son of God was united with Christ the man only morally, and not physically, and lived in him, as formerly in Moses and the prophets,—then there was no incarnation at all, and it is impossible to say: The Word was flesh, or, God sent his Son, born of a woman; for it would turn out that the Son of God was not born of a woman and did not take upon


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 ing. What was it all about, she asked herself again? Her best friend dying without friends and poorly cared for, and a Tory spy shot before her eyes!

It was a long, tiresome trip back to the Mountain. The rain did not add to the travelers' comfort, and even the horses ambled along, mile after mile, in a discouraged manner. Uzal, never talkative at best, soon gave up his concerned efforts to arouse and interest Sally, and sank into a silence as deep as her own.

At last the gleam of candelight through his own windows drew an exclamation from him. Pointing to a couple of horses tied to the walnut tree in front of the house, he spoke: "There must be visitors here, Sally, so come, arouse yourself. Let them not see ye wi' the megrims, thus!"

"Aye, Uzal!" Sally sighed forlornly, slipped cheerlessly down her horse's side. But when she entered the kitchen door and saw the visitors gathered around Mistress Ball's supper table, her expression of gloom lifted and she went forward almost with her own happy air. "Why, Parson Chapman, 'tis you! And you, Mistress Van Houten!" She curtseyed in surprise to the latter.

"Good-even, Sally!" said Mistress Van Houten kindly.

Parson Chapman held out his hand to the girl, who placed her own shyly within it. "Sally," he

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 began abruptly. "How would ye like to go back wi' Mistress Van Houten?"

"This night?" questioned Sally, in amazement.

"Nay," interrupted the Widow Ball hospitably, "ye must not think o' returning this rainy night!"

But Parson Chapman shook his head. "We thank ye very kindly. Mistress Ball," he responded. "We must return to the Town by the River. Ah, Uzal!" The minister broke off to greet the young man who had entered gravely, at that moment, after having put his horses away in the barn. "Nay, we cannot tarry, rain or no rain. I have an engagement to-morrow, as hath Mistress Van Houten. We do not mind the rain, and I promised Mistress Todd to return to her friend's house in Newark. We," he smiled broadly, glancing mysteriously at Sally, "we have business wi' the lady."

Rachel Ball leaned forward with a pretty gesture of excitement. "Nay, Parson Chapman, ye be too cruel to arouse our curiosity thus!" she protested with a charming pout.

Everyone glanced from the minister to Sally and back again. Even David Ball grinned with excited interest, while Uzal kept his steady gaze upon Parson Chapman's face.

"Shall I tell?" queried the minister, enjoying the fun as much as anyone. He paused tantalizingly, after Mistress Van Houten had nodded

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 laughingly. Tis this!" said Parson Chapman at last. "Mistress Todd this night is to bestow her freedom upon Sally here! We are to meet in an hour or so's time to sign the articles!"

"Free!" Sally clasped her hands, staring at the minister. Slowly her eyes filled with tears. "Why, then—why, then—I shall be like other maids! I shall—shall be—like—other maids!" she said.

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HERE!" said Mistress Todd, shaking the sand off the drying ink. She held out to Parson Chapman the paper she had but now signed. "Ye have your freedom, Sally." She turned to glance sarcastically at the girl. "See an ye be any better off for it!"

There was silence in the kitchen of the house where Mistress Todd, with Mistress Banks and the children, had been living since the battle of Newark. Everyone gazed at the young girl who, cheeks flushed, eyes downcast, was standing beside the table where her former mistress was seated. Sally raised her eyes, more violet than blue from deep excitement, to look at the older woman in the candelight. "I will try to be the better for it, mistress," she answered as though she were giving her promise.

Mistress Van Houten, who had been watching her sympathetically, now turned inquiringly to the minister. "Art sure this paper be all right, sir?" she asked in a doubtful voice. "Should not Squire Todd ha' signed it, also?"

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 Parson Chapman shook his head. "Under the circumstances, I believe Mistress Todd's signature to be all that's necessary." Suddenly the minister broke off, as he glanced at the kitchen door. When he continued, it was in a voice of mingled amazement and excitement. "Only—an ye doubt the paper's legality—here be Squire Todd to sign it, too!"

At that, everyone wheeled toward the door which the minister had chanced to be alone in facing. There was a wild cry of "Samuel!" and Mistress Todd was in her husband's arms, sobbing out her welcome upon his shoulder.

Then what a bedlam ensued! Master Todd was led in and seated in a chair of honor which the host hastily pulled forward. Everyone talked and laughed at once; and in the midst of it all, the stair door opened and little Mary, wide-eyed and wondering, entered. An instant later, she was upon her father's knee, hugging and kissing him, and the confusion commenced all over again and continued until Parson Chapman laughingly held up his hand.

"Much as I do dislike to interrupt this rejoicing," he said, smiling broadly, "I would ask Master Todd to sign these articles for Sally; for we must away to Paulus Hook, where Mistress Van Houten wishes to embark to New York Town this night."

"Articles for Sally?" Master Todd repeated it

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 in surprise. He took the paper which Parson Chapman handed to him and, setting down little Mary, rose and went to the place beside the table which the minister indicated. "Why, art freein' Sally?" he asked, seating himself and reading the paper hastily by the light of the candle. He glanced at his wife, who nodded.

"Aye," answered Mistress Todd. "Ah, Samuel," her voice faltered, and, coming to his side, she placed her hand upon his shoulder, "I was fearful ye were ne'er returning to us, and I did think to sell the farm and rid myself o' all responsibilities."

"I escaped the prison ship yesterday," Master Todd looked grimly around the circle of interested faces. "At times, I, too, was fearful o' not returning, Molly!" He paused, sighed. "However," he went on briskly, "that be past, thank Heaven. And so now ye would leave us, Sally?"

"Aye, sir! Mistress Van Houten did ask me to come to her, and since I was but visiting the Widow Ball while Mistress Todd tarried here, I did accept her kind invitation."

"And now I be home, ye still are o' the same mind o' freeing Sally, Moll?" Squire Todd turned to his wife.

"I am, Samuel," Mistress Todd spoke emphatically. "Oil and water will not mix. Just so, Sally and I will be better apart."

"So be it!" Squire Todd reached for the quill

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 pen and placed his signature with a flourish above that of his wife. Rising, then, he returned to his former seat, little Mary following him like a small shadow, while the minister, with a sigh, picked up the paper.

"Not all experiments do turn out well," he said slowly. He handed the paper containing her freedom to Sally. "When I placed ye at the Mountain, I did it thinking 'twas for your best, my child."

"I know. Master Chapman." Clasping the precious paper to her heart, Sally looked at the minister gratefully. "Ever ye have been good to me, sir! And you. Master Todd! And you, little Mary!" She looked at them each in turn.

Mistress Todd, ignored unconsciously, tossed her head and stepped to Mistress Banks's side. "Past favors are easily forgotten!" she sniffed. But Mistress Banks, gazing at her friend with wise, affectionate eyes, only smiled gently and said not a word.

The night waxed late when Sally, with Parson Chapman and Mistress Van Houten, set forth upon horseback, followed by a chorus of farewells from the lighted door. Sally sighed a little, thinking of those other farewells a few hours previous which had come to her as she left the Ball house. Uzal, alone, had said nothing, only his eyes had mutely bid her good-bye over his mother's head as he had stood behind the latter.

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 For long years afterward, the girl remembered that strange night trip across the two ferries on the Passaic and the Hackensack rivers—obtained through the influence of Parson Chapman, for it was a stern rule of the ferryman to make daylight trips only—across the great swamps, with their salt-marsh odors and their gloomy cedar woods, up over Bergen Heights and down to Paulus Hook and the ferry there. When at last they reached the inn at Paulus Hook and discovered that the ferryman was out fishing and would not return for another hour or so, according to his wife. Parson Chapman left them and went back to Newark; and Sally, gazing up into his kind face, knew that she was saying good-bye to one of her best friends. Suddenly she gathered courage to ask him something which she had been mulling over in her mind, wondering if she dared mention the subject.

"Oh, sir," she whispered, glancing cautiously toward Mistress Van Houten, whose back was turned as she stared out across the dark water of the mighty Hudson River, "oh, sir, an ye ever meet the—the red-coat concerning whom Uzal Ball did tell o' this night, will ye—wilt write me o't?"

Parson Chapman slapped his thigh. "Why, Sally, I did forget!" he exclaimed with a rueful laugh. "Had ye not mentioned the subject, I would ne'er ha' told ye that, as I was leaving Master Hedden's, when ye rode on, this even, a post rider did arrive

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 from Morris Town wi' a message to Master Hedden. I questioned the rider concerning the young British prisoner—for I thought his case a very sad one, indeed—and the rider happened to know of him and told me"

"Aye, told you?" Sally moistened her dry lips.

"He told me the young man would live," proclaimed Master Chapman triumphantly. "He had passed the crisis o' the plague this day and was on the mend. But why"—the good minister paused and looked down teasingly into the eager face—"art so interested i' the red uniform? Dost not like blue and buff much better?"

"We-ell," Sally hesitated, "mayhap—the—the war will some day end—and—uniforms will go out o' fashion, sir!"

Mistress Van Houten, turning back from her contemplation of the few scattered lights that proclaimed the existence of New York Town, wondered at the minister's sudden amused laugh as he bowed to Sally and herself and, leaping upon his horse, rode away.

Sally and the lady were met by a sleepy-eyed, yawning Cudje when they finally ascended the steps of Mistress Van Houten's New York house. Cudje grinned, however, and reached for Sally's heavy reticule.

Leading the way into a fine, big bedroom at the rear of the second floor, Mistress Van Houten

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 turned to Sally. "Would ye like to sleep down here this night, my dear?" she asked. "I expect company to occupy this room to-morrow night—a real lord and lady, Sally, my child, who are coming to dinner wi' General Clinton, then. The general will return home; but the others will remain, for milady is an old school friend o' mine, whom I have not seen this many years, until her husband was sent across by His Majesty to bring terms to the colonists. She and I went to school together in England, though I was born over here."

"Ye"—Sally placed her reticule upon a chair and looked at her hostess squarely—"ye are not a Tory, mistress?"

"Nay," answered the other carelessly. Tis only old friendship which bids me have these people. General Clinton was a good friend o' Hans's once. But what say ye about the room?' There be a smaller one on the next floor, whither ye will have to retire often, whenever we have company."

"I will stay here this night, for Cudje has made ready the bed here," returned the girl quietly, nodding toward the old man who had turned back the bed covers.

She smiled in answer to her hostess's good-night; but, when she was alone, her smile faded. Once more she had changed her place of abode and not yet come home! Overwhelmed by the feeling of

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 transitoriness, of loneliness, of not belonging, poor Sally sank to her knees beside the bed and buried her bright head in its quilts. There she remained very still for a long, long time, with only the irritated squawk of the cockatoo, who had been awakened by Cudje's bedtime candle, breaking the silence from below.

Sally deliberately primped that next evening before Mistress Van Houten's mirror. Enemy or no enemy, she meant to look her very best; for she had a plan under her red-gold curls by which she hoped to achieve wonderful things. And some plans, some feminine instinct told her, are ever helped by pleasing attire and bright eyes and curls that tumble riotously about the cheek. She turned self-consciously, when the door opened and Mistress Van Houten entered the room hurriedly. "Will I do?" she asked demurely.

Mistress Van Houten's gaze brightened. "Splendidly!" she exclaimed. "Is it not lucky that I had some o' the gowns outgrown by Hans's niece left in my chest? I know not how many times I ha' started to give them away, and always something inside whispered, 'Wait! She paused and stared at the dainty, brilliant little figure in blue satin gown and lace overskirt. "Ye will make a nice sixth guest this even, my child—I needed a sixth!" she finished, with a kind smile. To herself she

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 thought: "Ah, ye are a beauty, Sally; but ye will find it out soon enow wi'out my telling ye so."

As though Sally had not primped for hours to further that deep-laid plan of hers!

About five o'clock, the girl, peeping out from behind the curtains of Mistress Van Houten's parlor, felt her heart beat as a fine coach drove up and stopped before the house to allow a lady and three gentlemen to descend from it. Something about the lady's tall, slender figure caught the girl's attention, and she wrinkled her brow in remembering. Where had she seen that high-held head, those lovely sloping shoulders! Then, as the lady turned and, led by a gentleman, came up the steps, Sally started. It was Lady Holden! And the auburn-haired gentleman, following with a handsome man in uniform, was most certainly her husband, Lord Holden!

Mistress Van Houten hurried into the parlor just as Cudje, clad for once in a new uniform, shuffled toward the door. Mistress Van Houten's kind face was flushed and moist, and she raised trembling hands to pat her lace cap. "Is't on straight—my cap, Sally?" she whispered, ducking her head to gaze frantically into a near-by mirror. "I had to o'ersee the pigeon pastries—Clara would ha' spoiled 'em by serving 'em cold."

"Your cap was all right—here, let me arrange

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 it!" said Sally, hiding her own excitement beneath a show of severity. Her deft fingers busied with the folds of lace upon Mistress Van Houten's bobbing, anxious head. Thus it was that Lady Holden, entering the parlor as Cudje majestically threw open the door, beheld her hostess's broad back turned to her and beyond, nervously staring, two great blue eyes in a white face beneath a mass of glorious red-gold curls. For an instant, as upon that other occasion, one May day, in Marshal Cunningham's office, a queer, intangible shock seemed to pass between woman and maid, then Mistress Van Houten, whirling around, gathered her old friend into an affectionate embrace, and Sally shrank back.

"Ah, madam," General Clinton now came forward gallantly to present his hostess with a fine nosegay in a paper-lace holder, "we are a lucky crowd this even, an my nose does me no wrong, for I'm sure I smell pigeon pasties."

They all laughed as Lord Holden and the third gentleman, Major André, the aide and good friend of General Clinton, paid their respects in turn to Mistress Van Houten and bowed courteously in response to Sally's respectful, trembling curtsey. Then Mistress Van Houten led the girl toward Lady Holden, who had seated herself languidly upon the sofa.

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 "This be Sally, Margot," said Mistress Van Houten, smiling at the girl.

Lady Holden leaned forward to scan the girl's face. "Sally—what?" she asked in a strange kind of breathless voice.

"Just Sally," answered the girl, low-toned and glancing in embarrassment at the others. But the other guests were conversing among themselves. Mistress Van Houten had turned away, and Lady Holden and Sally were alone.

Suddenly the former seized Sally's face between two cold hands, looked fiercely into her eyes and, releasing her, sank back with a hopeless gesture. "Trevor!" she called, drops of moisture starting out upon her forehead.

Hardly had his wife breathed his name when Lord Holden was at her side.

"Trevor!" Lady Holden took his hand and held it tightly clasped in hers as she looked up at him pleadingly. "Find—out—about—this girl! Ah, she might be"—her face whitened as she saw the angry frown come into his blue eyes—"ye never can tell!—she might be—Constance!"

"Nay, Margot!" Lord Holden looked down at her sternly. "Ye know what ye promised me when I said ye might come to America wi' me! I ha' no time to follow silly notions o' yours!"

"But that May day—" Lady Holden spoke

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 with difficulty—"ye know I told ye that May day about this girl. Ah, Trevor, it might be!"

"Tut, tut!" Lord Holden moved to one side as Cudje passed him to draw the shades and to light the wall sconces. The flickering candle gleams threw grim shadows over his face as he gazed down angrily at his wife, after noticing that the other occupants of Mistress Van Houten's parlor were looking at them in astonishment. "I told ye. Margot, that I would not fall victim to your foolishness more! How many times ha' ye sworn ye ha' found Baby Constance! How many times ha' we been mocked! Nay, she did perish that wild night, and"

"An ye please, my lord," Sally interrupted him quietly, "are ye related, by chance, to Gerald Lawrence?"

"He is my ward." Lord Holden looked at her keenly.

"Then why ha' ye made no attempt to free him?" asked the girl bluntly. "Know ye not the New Jersey Council o' Safety are but waiting for him to recover from a bad case o' smallpox to try him for treason to his country, when he may hang?"

"What!" Lord and Lady Holden uttered the exclamation together. "Why, Marshal Cunningham assured me that he was working upon his exchange," added his lordship. He turned in agitation

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