Page:Dorothy's spy; a story of the first "fovrth of Jvly" celebration, New York, 1776.djvu/143

 CHAPTER VIII

THE CONFLAGRATION

the two girls awakened next morning they had a very well-defined idea that the part played by them during the previous night would serve as a text for a severe lecture, and neither felt inclined to descend the stairs to the living room.

"Your father and mine will scold, I expect," Dorothy said with a sigh, as she halted near the kitchen door, "and then our mothers are almost certain to blame us, therefore this won't be a very pleasant day."

But young Mistress Dean was happily mistaken, for stirring news came so thick and fast that the gentlemen could spend no time on two children, however much the latter were at fault.

First, one of the neighbors came in while the family and the guests were at breakfast, to say that the statue of King George which had been pulled down the evening previous, was at that moment being carried into Connecticut on an ox cart, and the citizens had decided it should be melted into bullets for the use of the American 130