med to buzz about her ears.

"Never mind, Lu; its sting won't damage you seriously," said Max,
giving her a look of amusement.

"Oh, hark! here come the soldiers again!" exclaimed Elsie Embury, as
the notes of a bugle, quickly followed by those of the drum and fife,
seemed to come from a distant point on the farther side of the bayou.

"Don't be alarmed, miss; American soldiers don't harm ladies," said
the voice from the farther end of the veranda.

"No, I am not at all alarmed," she returned with a look of amusement
directed first at Cousin Ronald, then at Max; "not in the least afraid
of them."

The music continued for a few minutes, all listening silently to it,
then as the last strain died away a voice spoke in tones apparently
trembling with affright, "Oh, please somebody hide me! hide me quick!
quick! before those troops get here. I'm falsely accused and who knows
but they may shoot me down on sight?"

The speaker was not visible, but from the sounds seemed to be on the
lawn and very near at hand.

"Oh, run round the house and get the servants to hide you in the
kitchen or one of the cellars," cried Ned, not quite able, in the
excitement of the moment, to realize that there was not a stranger
there who might be really in sore peril.

"Thanks!" returned the voice, and a sound as of some one running
swiftly in the prescribed direction accompanied and followed the word.

Then the tramp, tramp, as of soldiers on the march, and the music of
the drum and fife seemed to draw nearer and nearer.

"Why, it's real, isn't it?" exclaimed one of the children, jumping up
and trying to get a nearer view of the approaching troop.

"Oh, don't be afraid," laughed Grace; "I'm sure they won't hurt us or
that poor, frightened man either."

"No," chuckled Ned. "If he went to the kitchen, as I told him to,
he'll have plenty of time to hide before they can get here."

"Sure enough, laddie," laughed Cousin Ronald, "they don't appear to be
coming on very fast. I hear no more o' their music or their tramp,
tramp. Do you?"

"No, sir; and I won't believe they are real live fellows till I see
them."

"Well now, Ned," said Lucilla, "I really believe they are very much
alive and kindly making a good deal of fun for us."

"Who, who, who?" came at that instant from among the branches of the
tree near at hand--or at least seemed to come from there.

"Our two ventriloquist friends," replied Lucilla, gazing up into the
tree as if