A Little Maid of Old Maine

								

her brown curls cut short "like a boy's"; beside this, Anna cared little
for dolls, and was completely happy when her father would take her with
him for a day's deep-sea fishing, an excursion which Rebecca could never
be persuaded to attempt. Anna was also often her father's companion on
long tramps in the woods, where he went to mark trees to be cut for
timber. She wore moccasins on these trips, made by the friendly Indians
who often visited the little settlement, and her mother had made her a
short skirt of tanned deerskin, such as little Indian girls sometimes
wear, and with her blue blouse of homespun flannel, and round cap with a
partridge wing on one side, Anna looked like a real little daughter of
the woods as she trotted sturdily along beside her tall father.
As the sisters passed the blacksmith shop they could hear the ringing
stroke on the anvil, for Mr. Foster had returned to his work of
hammering out forks for pitching hay and grain; these same forks which
were fated to be used before many months passed as weapons against the
enemies of American liberty.
"To-morrow I am to go with Father to the woods," announced Anna as they
came in sight of the comfortable log cabin which stood high above the
river, and where they could see their mother standing in the doorway
looking for their return. The girls waved and called to their mother as
they hurried up the path.
"We have fine chips, Mother," called Rebecca, while Anna in a sing-song
tone called out: "Pineapples and sweet-smelling spices! Strings of pink
coral and shells from far lands."
Rebecca sighed to herself as she heard Anna's laughing recital of their
father's words. She resolved to ask her mother to forbid Anna talking
in future in such a silly way.
"You are good children to go and return so promptly," said Mrs. Weston,
"but you are none too soon, for 'twill take a good blow with the bellows
to liven up the coals, and I have a fine venison steak to broil for
dinner," and as she spoke Mrs. Weston took the basket and hurried into
the house, followed by the girls.
"Mother, what is a 'liberty pole'?" questioned Anna, kneeling on the
hearth to help her mother start the fire with the pine chips.
"What dost thou mean, child? Surely the men are not talking of such
matters as liberty poles?" responded her mother anxiously.
Anna nodded her head. "Yes, Mother. There is to be a 'liberty pole' set
up so it can be well seen from the harbor, for so I heard Mr. O'Brien
say; and Father is to go to the woods to-morrow to find it. It is to be
the straightest and handsomest sapling pine to be found in a day's
journey; that much I know," declared Anna eagerly; "but tell me why is
it to be called a 'liberty pole'? And why is it to be set up so it can
be well seen from the harbor?"
"Thou knowest, Anna, that King George of England is no longer the true
friend of American liberty," said Mrs. Weston, "and the liberty pole is
set up to show all Tories on land or sea that we mean to defend our