Page:An Old Fashioned Girl.djvu/124

108 "Good for you! Hope the fellows came!" cried Tom, charmed with this opening.

"One day, an ill-looking man came in and asked for food," continued grandma, with a mysterious nod; and while he ate, I saw him glance sharply about, from the wooden buttons on the back-doors, to the silver urn and tankards on the dining-room side-board. A strong suspicion took possession of me, and I watched him as a cat does a mouse.

"'He came to examine the premises, I'm sure of it, but we will be ready for him,' I said, fiercely, as I told the family about him.

"This fancy haunted us all, and our preparations were very funny. Mother borrowed a rattle, and kept it under her pillow. Aunt took a big bell to bed with her; the children had little Tip, the terrier, to sleep in their room; while Jack and I mounted guard, he with the pistol, and I with a hatchet, for I didn't like fire-arms. Biddy, who slept in the attic, practised getting out on the shed roof, so that she might run away at the first alarm. Every night we arranged pit-falls for the robbers, and all filed up to bed, bearing plate, money, weapons and things to barricade with, as if we lived in war times.

"We waited a week and no one came, so we began to feel rather slighted, for other people got 'a scare,' as Tom says, and after all our preparations we really felt a trifle disappointed that we had had no chance to show our courage. At last a black mark was found upon our door, and a great panic ensued, for we felt that now our time had come.

"That night we put a tub of water at the bottom of the back-stairs, and a pile of tin pans at the top of the