pretty well take care of herself, besides that she was so tough and
lean that one must be very hungry indeed to be greatly tempted by her
bristles,

But how sell the pigs or buy the salt in such days as these? There
was, indeed, no firing.

There was a belief that treaties were going on, but leisure only left
the besiegers more free to go wandering about in search of plunder;
and Stead found all trouble saved him as to disposing of his pigs.
They were quite gone next time he looked for them, and the poor old
sow had been lamed by a shot; but did not seem seriously hurt, and
when with some difficulty she had been persuaded to be driven into
the glen, she seemed likely to be willing to stay there in the corner
of the cattle shed.

The children were glad enough to be in their glen, with all its
bareness and discomfort, when they heard that a troop of horse had
visited Elmwood, and made a requisition there for hay and straw.
They had used no violence, but the farmers were compelled to take it
into the camp in their own waggons, getting nothing in payment but
orders on the treasury, which might as well be waste paper. And,
indeed, they were told by the soldiers that they might be thankful to
get off with their carts and horses.




CHAPTER VIII.