A Little Maid of Ticonderoga

								


    XX.      THE CAPTURE OF THE FORT                      208

A Little Maid of Ticonderoga

CHAPTER I
ESTHER AND BRUIN

Faith Carew was ten years old when Esther Eldridge came to visit her.
Faith lived in a big comfortable log cabin on one of the sloping
hillsides of the Green Mountains. Below the cabin was her father's
mill; and to Faith it always seemed as if the mill-stream had a gay
little song of its own. She always listened for it when she awoke each
morning.
"I wonder if Esther will hear what the brook sings?" thought Faith as
she drew on her moccasin slippers and dressed as quickly as she could,
for her mother had already called her twice, and Faith had just
reached the top of the stairs when the third call of, "Faith! Faith! I
shall not keep your porridge hot another instant," sounded from the
kitchen.
"I'm coming, mother dear," the little girl called back, and hurried
down the stairs, wondering to herself why grown people who could
always do exactly as they pleased should think it best to rise before
the sun was really up.
"Your father was off to the mill an hour ago," said Mrs. Carew,
setting a bowl of steaming porridge on the end of the table beside a
narrow window, "so you will have to eat your porridge alone."
Faith sat down at the table, looking out through the open window
toward the mill.
"I do hope Esther Eldridge and her father will come to-day," she said.
"Do you think they will, mother dear?"
"Yes, child; they will probably arrive before sunset. Your father
expected them yesterday. It will be a fine thing for you to have a
little girl for a companion. But she is a village child, and may not
be happy in the Wilderness," responded Mrs. Carew.
"Why, of course she will like being here! Just think, she has never
seen wheat ground into flour! And she can see that in our mill; and
she has always walked on real roads, and here she will not even see a
road; and I know many pleasant paths where we can walk, and I can
tell her the names of different trees and flowers. I'm sure she will
think the Wilderness a fine place," said Faith, nodding her head so
that her yellow curls seemed to dance about her face.
"I hope they make the journey from Brandon safely. Your father has
been told that the Indians have been troublesome to the settlers near
Lake Dunmore; and besides that, there are many bears coming out into
the clearings these fine autumn days. But Mr. Eldridge is a good shot,
and I am seeking trouble in naming Indians or bears. Finish your
breakfast, Faithie, and run to the garden and bring me in the ripest
of the pumpkins; for I must make some cakes for our company."
The Carews lived in a log house on a slope of cleared ground running
down to the mill-stream. There were no roads, only rough trails, and
they had no near neighbors. Faith's father had a large grant of land,
a "New Hampshire Grant," it was called, which ran toward the eastern