ed the family let her come, or that you'd
countenance it by coming with her, major."

"We all opposed it," said Colden, with a sigh. "But--you know
Elizabeth!"

"Yes," said Elizabeth herself with cheerful nonchalance, "Elizabeth
always has her way. I was hungry for a sight of the place, and the
more the old house is in danger, the more I love it. I'm here for a
week, and that ends it. The place doesn't seem to have suffered any.
They haven't even quartered troops here."

"Not since the American officers stayed here in the fall o' '76," put
in old Mr. Valentine, from the settle. "I reckon you'll be safe enough
here, Miss Elizabeth."

"Of course I shall. Why, our troops patrol all this part of the
country, Lord Cathcart told us at King's Bridge, and _we_ have naught
to fear from them."

"No, the British foragers won't dare treat Philipse Manor-house as
they do the homes of some of their loyal friends," said Miss Sally,
who was no less proud of her relationship with the Philipses, because
it was by marriage and not by blood. "But the horrible "Skinners," who
don't spare even the farms of their fellow rebels--"

"Bah!" said Elizabeth. "The scum of the earth! Williams has weapons
here, and with him and the servants I'll defend the place against all
the rebel cut-throats in the county."

The major thought to make a last desperate attempt to dissuade
Elizabeth from remaining.

"That's all well enough," said he; "but there are the rebel regulars,
the dragoons. They'll be raiding down to our very lines, one of these
days, if only in retaliation. You know how Lord Cornwallis's party
under General Grey, over in Jersey, the other night, killed a lot of
Baylor's cavalry,--Mrs. Washington's Light Horse, they called the
troop. And the Hessians made a great foray on the rebel families this
side the river."

"Ay," chirped old Valentine; "but the American Colonel Butler, and
their Major Lee, of Virginia, fell on the Hessian yagers 'tween
Dobbs's Ferry and Tarrytown, and killed ever so many of 'em,--and I
wasn't sorry for that, neither!"

"Oho!" said Colden, "you belong to the opposition."

"Oh, I'm neither here nor there," replied the old man. "But they say
that there Major Lee, of Virginia, is the gallantest soldier in
Washington's army. He'd lead his men against the powers of Satan if
Washington gave the word. Light Horse Harry, they call him,--and a
fine dashing troop o' light horse he commands."

"No more dashing, I'