u there?" asked Mr. Walters, with a smile; "it must be powder,
or some other explosive matter, you take such wonderful pains for its
preservation. Come, Caddy, tell us what it is; is it powder?"

"No, Mr. Walters, it isn't powder," she replied; "it's nothing that will
blow the house up or burn it down."

"What is it, then? You tell us, Kinch."

"Just do, if you think best," said Caddy, giving him a threatening glance;
whereupon, Master Kinch looked as much as to say, "If you were to put me on
the rack you couldn't get a word out of me."

"I suppose I shall have to give you up," said Mr. Walters at last; "but
don't stand here in the entry; come up into the drawing-room."

Mrs. Ellis and Esther followed him upstairs, and stood at the door of the
drawing-room surveying the preparations for defence that the appearance of
the room so abundantly indicated. Guns were stacked in the corner, a number
of pistols lay upon the mantelpiece, and a pile of cartridges was heaped up
beside a small keg of powder that stood upon the table opposite the
fire-place.

"Dear me!" exclaimed Mrs. Ellis, "this looks dreadful; it almost frightens
me out of my wits to see so many dangerous weapons scattered about."

"And how does it affect our quiet Esther?" asked Mr. Walters.

"It makes me wish I were a man," she replied, with considerable vehemence
of manner. All started at this language from one of her usually gentle
demeanour.

"Why, Esther, how you talk, girl: what's come over you?"

"Talk!" replied she. "I say nothing that I do not feel. As we came through
the streets to-day, and I saw so many inoffensive creatures, who, like
ourselves, have never done these white wretches the least injury,--to see
them and us driven from our homes by a mob of wretches, who can accuse us
of nothing but being darker than themselves,--it takes all the woman out of
my bosom, and makes me feel like a----" here Esther paused, and bit her lip
to prevent the utterance of a fierce expression that hovered on the tip of
her tongue.

She then continued: "One poor woman in particular I noticed: she had a babe
in her arms, poor thing, and was weeping bitterly because she knew of no
place to go to seek for shelter or protection. A couple of white men stood
by jeering and taunting her. I felt as though I could have strangled them:
had I been a man, I would have attacked them on the spot, if I had been
sure they would have killed me the next moment."

"Hush! Est