"
"I would, if I'd known what you was going to do; they'd been a
sight safer, in the honey tree."
"Yes, and what a fool I've been--flung MY WATCH into the well
with the spoons!"
"Well, well! Don't stand there, looking," as she hovered over
the high curb, with her hand on the bucket. "Everybody will
know, if you do, there."
"Martha! Martha?" shrieked Uncle John's quavering voice from the
house door.
"Bless my heart!" she exclaimed, hurrying back over the stones.
"What's the matter with your heart?" questioned Joe.
"Nothing. I was thinking of Uncle John's money," she answered.
"Has he got money?" cried Joe. "I thought he was poor, and you
took care of him because you were so good"
Not one word that Joe uttered did the little woman hear. She was
already by Uncle John's side and asking him for the key to his
strong box.
Uncle John's rheumatism was terribly exasperating. "No, I won't
give it to you!" he cried, "and nobody shall have it as long as
I'm above ground."
"Then the soldiers will carry it off," she said.
"Let 'em!" was his reply, grasping his staff firmly with both
hands and gleaming defiance out of his wide, pale eyes. "YOU
won't get the key, even if they do."
At this instant, a voice at the doorway shouted the words, "Hide,
hide away somewhere, Mother Moulton, for the Red-coats are in
sight this minute!"
She heard the warning, and giving one glance at Uncle John, which
look was answered by another, "no, you won't have it," she
grasped Joe Devins by the collar of his jacket and thrust him
before her up the staircase, so quickly that the boy had no
chance to speak, until she released her hold at the entrance to
Uncle John's room.
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