e youngsters in chorus. Rapineau gives them the money and
suppresses the breakfast. In the afternoon, when the children were
anxiously expecting their first meal, Rapineau calls out, "Those who
want their dinner must give twopence;" and they all pay back what they
received in the morning for going without their breakfast, and in that
way Rapineau saves a meal a day.

JOHN KILBURNE'S FORT.

BY JAMES OTIS.

Seven miles from that settlement in the province of New Hampshire which
is now known as Keene, John Kilburne built, in the year 1754, a log
house of such strength and so well adapted for defence that his
neighbors spoke of it as a "garrison," and more than one ridiculed the
idea of erecting a fort when only a dwelling-house was required.

It troubled stout-hearted John Kilburne not one whit that his
acquaintances found subject for mirth in the precautions he took against
a savage foe. "In case the Indians do make an attack upon me and mine, I
shall be in better condition to receive them in a building of this kind
than in one erected flimsily, and if they do not, my wife and two boys
will sleep all the more soundly for knowing I have protected them from
possible intruders." This the owner of the "garrison" repeated again and
again, until finding he would make no other reply to their bantering,
his friends ceased to speak derisively of the structure.

In one year from the time the fortlike house had been built John
Kilburne had good cause for satisfaction with himself. England was again
at war with the French regarding her possessions in the New World, and
the Indians were making indiscriminate attacks upon the settlers in the
easternmost provinces.

Benjamin and Arthur Kilburne, sons of John and Martha his wife, although
but fourteen and twelve years of age respectively, were well versed in
the use of fire-arms, for in those days the assistance of even the
children of a household might become necessary. Rumors of Indian
depredations were rife, yet they felt little fear of an attack. Within
the walls of the "garrison" their father and themselves would be able to
hold in check a large body of savages, and be exposed to but little
danger.

The crops had been harvested; the cattle were inside the stockade, where
was ample food for them in case of a siege, and where they would serve
as food if the larder of the house needed replenishing.

Early on the morning of the 9th of October John Pike, his wife, and tw