f them came rushing into the house, and I
tell you they talked and acted savage."

"Well, what did they want?" asked Tom.

"They wanted to know if we had any weapons in the house," answered Mark.
"And when we told them no, they----"

"That was another foolish thing for you to do," Mr. Allison interposed.
"Your people must have taken leave of their senses since I last saw
them. When you said there were no weapons in the house, they proceeded
to search for them."

"That is just what they did," replied Mark, with tears of rage in his
eyes. "And we had to stand there and see them pull the house to
pieces----"

"And steal everything they could lay their hands on," chimed in Tom.

"Of course. That's a foregone conclusion; although I did hear my mother
say that she passed her bedroom door while the search was going on, and
there was her jewelry lying on the bureau, and a soldier with a carbine
keeping guard over it."

"That was done for effect," declared Tom. "When she comes to look into
the matter, she will find that she hasn't so much as a breastpin left.
Did they take your father's pocketbook?"

"I haven't the least doubt of it, although I did not see them do it,"
said Mark, who wished he could add effect to his story by saying that he
had seen his father robbed of his money. "They were the very
worst-looking lot I ever saw--all Irish and Dutch; not a gentleman among
them."

"But what did they steal besides your weapons?" inquired Mr. Allison.

"I didn't see that they took a thing," Mark was obliged to confess,
"but, of course, I did not look into their pockets. When father heard
them coming, he shoved his revolver between the mattresses on his bed;
but he might as well have left it in plain sight, for the first thing
those Yankees did when they went into his room was to pull that bed to
pieces. Then they went upstairs into my room and walked off with my fine
rifle and shot-gun. One of them grinned when he went out, and said that
for a place that had no weapons in it, he thought our house had panned
out pretty well. I tell you that made me mad."

"And do you think they are coming this way?" asked Mr. Allison.

"I believe they will visit every house in the settlement before they
quit," replied Mark; whereupon Tom got up and acted as though he wanted
to do something. "They must have robbed other houses before they came to
ours, for I noticed that several of them carried sporting rifles and
fowling-pieces in add