ow;" and he tried to take her hand to
lead her from the room. But she pushed him gently back, saying to the
startled group: "Have you made your decision, gentlemen? Have you
chosen the part of men, or traitors?"

They stammered and blundered as they tried to find answer. Things
appeared to them in a new light as this woman so pointedly questioned
them. Their answers were a mixture of excuses and explanations. They
declared the country to be in a hopeless condition; the army starving,
half-clothed, undisciplined, the country poor, while England's trained
troops were backed by the wealth of a thousand years.

Hannah Arnett listened in silence until the last abject word was
spoken, when she rapidly inquired: "But what if we should live after
all?" The men looked at each other, but not word was spoken. "Hannah,
Hannah," cried her husband, "do you not see these are no questions for
you? We are discussing what is best for us all. Women do not
understand these things; go to your spinning-wheel and leave us to
discuss these topics. Do you not see that you are making yourself
ridiculous?"

But Mrs. Arnett paid no heed. Speaking to the men in a strangely
quiet, voice, she said: "Can you not tell me? If, after all, God does
not let the right perish; if America should win in the conflict, after
you have thrown yourselves upon British clemency, where will you be
then?" "Then?" spoke a hesitating voice, "why then, if it ever could
be so, we should be ruined. We must then leave home and country
forever. But the struggle is an entirely hopeless one. We have no men,
no money, no arms, no food, and England has everything."

"No," said Mrs. Arnett, "you have forgotten one thing which England
has not, and which we have--one thing which outweighs all England's
treasures, and that is the right. God is on our side; and every volley
from our muskets is an echo of His voice. We are poor and weak and
few, but God is fighting for us. We counted the cost before we began;
we knew the price and were willing to pay; and now, because for the
time the day is going against us, you would give up all and sneak back
like cravens, to kiss the feet that have trampled upon us! And you
call yourselves men; the sons of those who gave up homes and fortune
and fatherland to make for themselves and for dear liberty a
resting-place in the wilderness! Oh, shame upon you, cowards!"

The words had rushed out in a fiery flood which her husband had vainly
striven