my good girl, only a little tired. It is not a time for me
to take much rest when the savages are said to be about to attack us."

"When is they coming?" inquired the girl, meekly. The pastor smiled as
he replied,--"That is best known to themselves, Poopy. Do you think it
likely that murderers or thieves would send to let us know when they
were coming?"

"Hee! hee!" laughed Poopy, with an immense display of teeth and gums.

"Is Alice awake?" inquired Mr Mason.

"No, her be sound 'sleep wid her two eye shut tight up, dis fashion, and
her mout' wide open--so."

The representations of Alice's condition, as given by her maid, although
hideously unlike the beautiful object they were meant to call up to the
father's mind, were sufficiently expressive and comprehensible.

"Go wake her, my girl, and let us have breakfast as soon as you can.
Has Will Corrie been here this morning?"

"Hims bin here all night," replied the girl, with a broad grin--(and the
breadth of Poopy's _broad_ grin was almost appalling!)

"What mean you? has he slept in this house all night?"

"Yes--eh! no," said Poopy.

"Yes, no," exclaimed Mr Mason. "Come, Poopy, don't be stupid, explain
yourself."

"Hee! hee! hee! yes, ho! ho!" laughed Poopy, as if the idea of
explaining herself was about the richest joke she had listened to since
she was born. "Hee! hee! me no can 'splain, but you com here and see."

So saying, she conducted her wondering master to the front door of the
cottage, where, across the threshold, directly under the porch, lay the
form of the redoubted Corrie, fast asleep, and armed to the teeth!

In order to explain the cause of this remarkable apparition, we think it
justifiable to state to the reader, in confidence, that young Master
Corrie was deeply in love with the fair Alice. With all his reckless
drollery of disposition, the boy was intensely romantic and
enthusiastic; and, feeling that the unsettled condition of the times
endangered the welfare of his lady-love, he resolved, like a true
knight, to arm himself and guard the threshold of her door with his own
body.

In the deep silence of the night he buckled on a sabre, the blade of
which, by reason of its having been broken, was barely eight inches
long, and the hilt whereof was battered and rusty. He also stuck a huge
brass-mounted cavalry pistol in his belt, in the virtue of which he had
great faith, having only two days before shot with it a green-headed
parr