they think."

And to show his contempt for the danger, the muscular lad lifted
his weighty weapon to a level, and pretended to sight it at a tree.

"I wish that was a Tory or one of those Six Nation Indians--
wouldn't I drop him!"

The mother could not share the buoyancy of her son. She stepped
outside, so as to be beyond the hearing of the little ones.

"Omas has been here; that is his little girl that you hear laughing
with Alice. He has told me the same as you--the Tories and Indians
are coming, and he wants us to flee with him."

"What does he mean by that?" asked the half indignant boy.

"He says they will put us all to death, and if we do not go with
him, we will be killed too."

The handsome face of Benjamin Ripley took on an expression of
scorn, and as he straightened up, he seemed to become several inches
taller.

"He forgets that I am with you! Omas is very kind; but he and his
Tory friends had better look out for themselves. Why, with the men
at the fort, Colonel Butler will have several hundred."

"But they are mostly old men and boys."