ind.

"You won't be nervous, child?" asked her father.

"Nervous, father! dear me, no, a tomboy nervous? Why, I have Mrs.
Tucker, cook, and Fanny to bear me company, and if you take the groom we
shall still have the stable boy," returned Patty triumphantly.

"I am glad you sent away that new coachman, dad," said Rose earnestly.
"I never liked his face, it always looked so sly and sneaking."

"Yes, I am glad too, and we must endeavour to find one when we are in
town, and perhaps bring him back with us, Rose--the place is a lonely
one without a man when I am away." He spoke the last words to himself,
but the girls heard him and laughed. They knew no fear. Why should they?
Nothing had ever come near to harm them during the short years of their
existence in their country home.

Colonel Bingham had of late questioned the wisdom of continuing to live
with his daughters in his beautiful, isolated house. It was three miles
from the nearest village, post-office, and church, and there was not
another habitation within that distance; it was five miles from the
nearest market town. But his heart clung to it. Hadn't he and his bride,
twenty years before, chosen this beautiful spot of all others to build
their house upon and make it their home? Had not his wife loved every
nook and cranny, every stick and stone of the home they had beautified
within and without? And therein lay the colonel's two chief objections
to leaving the place--it was beautiful--and--his wife had loved it.

So did his daughters too, for that matter; but they were growing up, and
newer scenes and livelier surroundings were now needed for them. The
colonel often caught himself pondering over the matter, and one of the
reasons for his wishing to visit his sister was that of laying the
matter open before her, and hearing her opinion from her own lips.

At an early hour the next morning Colonel Bingham, Rose, and the groom,
with two of the horses, had left the house.

There was nothing to alarm Patty. The beautiful home with its peaceful
surroundings was perfectly quiet for the two days that followed, and if
Patty, in spite of her brave heart, had felt any qualms of fear, they
had vanished on the morning of the third day, which dawned so
brilliantly bright that she was eager to take her rifle and begin
practising at the target she herself had set up at the end of the short
wood to the left of the house.

Meanwhile, the housekeeper had set both maids to work