om the start. Opening a window, she coolly sang out, in a
firm tone of voice: "Who are you? What do you want here?"

"We are after that old abolition husband of yours," was the answer from
one of the crowd.

"He is not in this house, and has not been here for a long time," said
my mother.

"That's a lie! We know he is in the house, and we are bound to have him,"
said the spokesman of the party.

I afterwards learned they had mistaken the herder, who had ridden home
with me, for my father for whom they had been watching.

"My husband is not at home," emphatically repeated my heroic mother--for
if there ever was a heroine she certainly was one--"but the house is full
of armed men," continued she, "and I'll give you just two minutes to get
out of the yard; if you are not out by the end of that time I shall order
them to fire on you."

She withdrew from the window for a few moments and hurriedly instructed
the herder to call aloud certain names--any that he might think of--just
as if the house was full of men to whom he was giving orders. He followed
her directions to the very letter. He could not have done it any better
had he rehearsed the act a dozen times.

The party outside heard him, as it was intended they should, and they
supposed that my mother really had quite a force at her command. While
this little by play was being enacted, she stepped to the open window
again and said:

"John Green, you and your friends had better go away or the men will
surely fire on you."

At this, point the herder, myself and my sisters commenced stamping on
the floor in imitation of a squad of soldiers, and the herder issued his
orders in a loud voice to his imaginary troops, who were apparently
approaching the window preparatory to firing a volley at the enemy. This
little stratagem proved eminently successful. The cowardly villains began
retreating, and then my mother fired an old gun into the air which
greatly accelerated their speed, causing them to break and run. They soon
disappeared from view in the darkness.

The next morning we accidentally discovered that they had intended to
blow up the house. Upon going into the cellar which had been left open on
one side, we found two kegs of powder together with a fuse secreted
there. It only required a lighted match to have sent us into eternity. My
mother's presence of mind, which had never yet deserted her in any trying
situation, had saved our lives.

Shortly after this af