top of the head, as was the fashion of the time, and both were
guiltless of powder, but Pamela's rebellious waves were trained to lie
as close as she could make them, while Betty's would crop out into
little dainty saucy curls over her forehead and down the nape of her
slender neck in a most bewildering fashion. Their complexions, like Miss
Moppet's, were exquisitely satin-like in texture, but there was no break
in Pamela's smooth cheeks, whereas Betty's dimples lurked not only
around her willful mouth, but perched high in her right cheek, and you
found yourself unconsciously watching to see them come and go at the
tricksy maid's changing will. There was but little more than a year's
difference in their ages, yet Betty seemed almost a child beside
Pamela's gracious stateliness.

"What is it all about?" asked the bewildered Pamela, catching hold of
Betty. "Moppet dashes into the kitchen, damp and moist, and says she has
been at the bottom of the pond, and orders hot posset, and you, Betty,
have an air of fright"--

"I should think she might well," interrupted Miss Euphemia; "I will tell
you, Pamela--Betty, go upstairs and change your habit for a gown, and
then come down to assist me. We are about to mould the bullets."

"Oh, Aunt Euphemia!" cried Betty, interrupting in her turn, "I beg your
pardon, but did those huge boxes contain the leaden statue of King
George, as my father's letter advised us?"

"It was cut in pieces, Betty," said Pamela demurely.

"As if I didn't know that," flashed out Betty; "and that it disappeared
after the patriots hauled it down in Bowling Green, and that General
Washington recommended it should be used for the cause of Freedom, and
that we are all to help transform it into bullets far our
soldiers,--truly, Pamela, I have not forgot my father's account of it,"
and Betty vanished inside the door with a rebellious toss of her head,
resenting the implied air of older sister which Pamela sometimes
indulged in.

"Our little Moppet has come perilously near death," said Miss Euphemia,
following Pamela into the house. "She has been rescued from drowning in
Great Pond by a gentleman whom Betty had never seen before. She
describes him as a fine personable youth, and I think it maybe Oliver's
friend, young Otis, who in expected at the Tracys' on a visit from
Boston."

"It can hardly be he, aunt," said Pamela, "for Sally Tracy has just told
me that he will not arrive for two days, and moreover he