to the outside of the meeting-house?"

Letitia was quite sure that the boy lied, but she knew that he lied
to please her, and she liked him for it.

Great-great-grandmother Letitia sniffed. "You are the greatest
braggart in the Precinct," said she. "Nary a wolf have you killed,
and you ran because you heard a wild cat or a bear. Where are the
Injuns, pray?"

"I know there were Injuns after me," said the boy earnestly, "but
perhaps I frightened them away. I brandished my knife as I ran."

Great-great-grandmother Letitia sniffed again, but she looked
anxious. "I hope," said she, "that father and mother will not be
molested on their way home."

"Give me a musket," declared the boy bravely, "and I will guard the
path."

"You!" returned Great-great-grandmother Letitia scornfully. "You are
naught but a child."

"I can handle a musket as well as a man," said Josephus Peabody with
such a straightening of his small back that it seemed positively
alarming, and another glance at Letitia, who returned it. She thought
him a very pretty boy, and quite brave, offering to guard the path
all alone, although he was so young, not much older than she was.

Great-great-grandmother Letitia took up a musket decidedly. "Very