“You better go get your things.” Cyrus turned to Louisa with an air of proprietorship that annoyed Ira, and he followed the girl into the house under pretext of wanting to speak to Alison. “Look a-here, Lou,” he said as he overtook her in the kitchen, “if anything goes wrong I want ye to feel ye kin call on yer friends. Nobody kin tell in this world how things is goin’ to turn out and you may need a friend when ye git away from here; if ye do, I’m ready to stand by ye. Jest give me half a chanst and I’ll fight fer ye down to the soles of my boots. All ye’ve got to do is to send me a stran’ o’ that red ha’r of yourn an’ I’ll come a bilin’.” In such knightly language did Ira proffer his service to his lady-love. Louisa nodded. “All right; I’ll remember.” Alison, with woebegone face, stood by as Louisa tied up her bundle. “I hope you won’t have need to run away,” she said. “But, oh, Lou, I do hate to see you go.” “I’ve learned ye a good bit,” said Louisa. “You can make pretty near as good biscuits as I can and your flapjacks are hard to beat.” “Oh, it isn’t your cooking we shall miss so much as your nice cheerful self,” Alison assured her. “Now, ain’t that the truth?” said Ira. “If this confounded war was over I’d--but, sho! I reckon ye’ll git along all right. Cyrus may be an ole fox but he ain’t no wildcat.” “We’ll come over to see you,” said Christine, who had joined the others to see Louisa off. “Yes, we will that,” added Ira, “even if your dad ain’t so very hearty in his invitations,” for Cyrus spoke no word. “Ef Cy Sparks thinks he is going to keep the boys away from a likely gal like that he’s mightily mistaken,” said Bud as the wagon drove away. “There ain’t a boy around here that wouldn’t be glad to see that red head a-firin’ up his kitchen.” “You bet,” Ira agreed heartily. “I reckon we’d better be off, too, Bud. Ain’t hed no word from John, gals?” “No, not yet.” “There’s been fighting,” Ira told them. “They were hard at it at Palo Alto the last I heerd and I reckon we was givin’ it to ’em good and hot. It makes a man feel like he was his own grandmother to stay at home like I’ve been doin’. I reckon I’ll be gittin’ off in a day or so.” It was quite true that at that time the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma had been fought. In the former the American losses were but four men and three officers killed, and thirty-seven wounded, while the Mexican’s killed amounted to two hundred, and their wounded were four hundred. At Resaca de la Palma the Mexican loss was far greater, being estimated at a thousand. On May 18th the victorious Americans took possession of Matamoras, driving the Mexicans from the city. General Taylor next proceeded to Monterey. After the departure of Louisa, Pedro’s concern for his young ladies had the effect of his laying the matter before Bud Haley.