them
who you are, and what has befallen us, and ask them to come to my
assistance, and for permission to stay at the house until I come for
you."

"Yes, father," replied Rose, and then she and Anne started down the
road. They kept in the shade for some distance, then the road ran up a
long sandy hill where the sun came down fully upon them, and before they
reached the summit they were very warm and tired.

"There's a house!" exclaimed Anne, as they stopped to rest on the top of
the hill.

"Thank goodness!" exclaimed Rose. "And it's a farmhouse. See the big
barns. There are sure to be horses there."

The girls quite forgot the heat, and ran down the sandy hill and
hurried along the road, which now was a smoother and better one than any
over which they had traveled, and in a short time were near the
comfortable farmhouse. A woman was standing in the doorway watching
them.

"Where in the world did you girls come from," she called out as they
opened the gate, "in all this heat? Come right in. I should think your
folks must be crazy to let you walk in the sun. Was that your father who
went galloping by on a brown horse just now?"

As soon as the woman finished speaking Rose told her their story.

"Then that man had stolen your horse! A Tory, I'll wager; and like
enough a spy," said the woman; "and my menfolks all away. There are two
horses in the pasture; if you girls can catch one of 'em and ride it
back to where your father's waiting, why, you're welcome."

Anne and Rose looked at each other almost in dismay. Neither of them had
ever been on the back of a horse, and to go into a pasture and catch a
strange horse seemed to them very much like facing a wild beast.

"We'll try," said Rose with a little smile.

"I thought you would," said the woman approvingly. "I'd go myself, but
I've got bread in the oven, and I must see to it."

The woman led the way to a shed and filling a shallow pan with oats from
a big bin, handed it to Rose, saying: "You go right through those
bars--leave 'em down; I'll put 'em up for you--and shake these oats and
call 'Range, Range,' and the old horse will be sure to come, and the
colt will follow."

Rose took the pan, and Anne pulled back the heavy bars, and they went a
few steps beyond the fence into the pasture and began to call "Range!
Range!"

In a moment there was the thud, thud of hoofs and two black horses came
dashing down the pasture. Their long manes and tails gave them a