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Pernell, stooping down to kiss her little girl's flushed cheek. "Oh, Mother! I do love you," exclaimed the happy child. "I'll never be afraid to tell you everything." "Of course you will tell me everything. That is what mothers are for," rejoined Mrs. Pernell. "And now I will take off my silk gown, and you had best smooth your hair and make yourself tidy for supper."
"Slip off the coat, dear child, and run and tell her now," said Aunt Deborah, and in a moment Ruth was running across the garden to where her mother was standing with Mrs. Merrill. Mrs. Pernell smiled down at her little daughter, and clasping the warm little hand in her own turned toward the gate. In a moment Ruth was in the midst of her story, and Mrs.
Pernell had been as the afternoon passed and Winifred and Ruth failed to return; of Gilbert borrowing Ned's pony, of meeting Ruth, "and I have been here an hour, calling and calling," she concluded. "How sound asleep I must have been not to hear you," said Winifred happily, snuggling closer to her mother's side. "After Fluff ran off I began to be frightened," she continued.
"I kept saying it over and over and I was not afraid." For a moment Mrs. Merrill did not reply. She stooped and kissed her little daughter, and then said: "That was right, dear child." It was nearly midnight when Mrs. Merrill and Winifred reached home, and Gilbert lifted a very sleepy little girl from the pony-cart. "Mrs. Pernell and Ruth are here," he said, "and she has some hot broth ready."
To leave Winifred alone so far from any human habitation was not to be thought of; neither did Mrs. Merrill wish Ruth to go on toward home without some one with her. "Gilbert, you must go home with Ruth, and I will drive on after Winifred," she decided. "Mrs. Pernell will be sadly troubled when Fluff comes running home and she has no news of her little girl. Go as quickly as you can."
"Here is R. Pernell," said Aunt Deborah, her hand resting protestingly on Ruth's shoulder. "Surely thee does not mean to take this little girl?" The soldiers seemed somewhat surprised at this, but repeated that they must obey orders. Gilbert did not seem at all afraid; he took Ruth by the hand, and told her that it was nothing to be alarmed about. Mrs.
"Thee does not mean to take this lad from his home," she said, speaking to the elder of the two men. "He has done nothing worthy of thy notice, and his mother can ill spare him." "That may be, madam. But we must obey orders. We have to take G. Merrill and R. Pernell to General Howe," the man answered civilly.
I picked her from among five Miss Augusta Pernell had over to Burnt Island," said the old woman, trudging along with the kitten close at her skirts. "Augusta, she says to me, 'Why, Mis' Blackett, you've took and homeliest; and, says I, 'I've got the smartest; I'm satisfied."
Pernell had been away for a week caring for her sister who lived in Germantown, near Philadelphia, and who was ill; and Aunt Deborah Mary Farleigh had come in from her home at Barren Hill, twelve miles distant, to stay with Ruth during Mrs. Pernell's absence. As Ruth ran up the steps of her friend's house the front door opened, and Winifred appeared. "Oh, Ruthie!
Pernell had just left the table when there was a rap at the door, and before any one could respond it opened, and there stood Winifred; her face was pale and she was evidently frightened. "Oh, Mrs. Pernell! There are two English officers at our house. They have come to take Gilbert," she exclaimed, "and they want Ruth too." "'Take Gilbert'!" echoed Mrs. Pernell. "What has he done?
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