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 like not noise o' battles and wounded men limping home!"

"But suppose they did not limp home!" said Mehitable with a laugh. "Suppose they came not at all! Ye would like that less, I'll warrant. Mistress Ball was glad enow to have her three sons return to her, limping or otherwise!"

"Nay, Hitty, I meant not that—I—I" stammered Charity, conscience-stricken. "Ye know I did not"

"I know ye are a dear, silly goose," interrupted Mehitable, "and that the lead be ready to ladle into the molds!"

And the two fell to their wartime task. After all the lead had been used, they stamped out part of the fire, threw earth over the rest of it, and pushed the molds containing the cooling bullets back among the thick-growing corn stalks, out of sight. Then, chatting and laughing, they sauntered slowly back to the Condit farmhouse.

Rounding a corner of the building, however, they stopped and stared. Hitched to a walnut tree beside the road were two horses, and company was rare on that country road.

"It looks like John's horse!" exclaimed Mehitable, hurrying her steps.

"Aye, it be John's horse!" echoed Charity happily.

They entered the kitchen in breathless haste,