“Firm as our native hills we stand, And should the lords of Europe land, We’ll meet them on the furthest strand; We’ll conquer, or we’ll die!” And the discord of the two different songs striking the quiet of the night, as they passed the farm-houses along the way, brought more than one person to the gate to see what was this noisy crowd. Hospitable, polite, and ready as they were to offer their best to a guest, the young men of the party showed some coolness to Robert Clinton when they made their adieux; but Lettice, with a pricking of conscience at having brought about the condition of affairs which led to the situation, felt sorry for the young man, and, leaning down from the wagon as it stopped at her Uncle Tom’s gate, she said in a soft whisper, “You’ll be over to-morrow to say good-by, won’t you?” The young man, with a sudden lifting of the gloom on his face, whispered back eagerly, “May I come?” But the noise of the wagon as it rumbled off drowned Lettice’s answer, if she made any. CHAPTER VI. _A Ball._ By the time the summer was over, many of Lettice’s friends had left the neighborhood. Rhoda had gone to Washington to join her father, who was still detained in the capital city. Mr. Clinton, too, was there. In October both Mr. Tom Hopkins and Lettice’s father marched away to the Canada border, and among the armed vessels which Baltimore sent out to annoy the enemy was one commanded by Joe Hopkins; this had started down the Chesapeake in August, and Patsey was wistfully looking for news from her absent lover. Betty’s pleadings had kept her husband at home, so far; and Jamie, although he threatened each day to follow his father, still lingered. “You’d better stay at home and protect us,” Betty and Lettice would say. “Suppose the enemy should come up the Chesapeake, where would we be? And if I were left a young widow, William, think how sad,” Betty would say as a final argument. “I think I will go to sea with Cousin Joe when he comes back,” James at last concluded. “I tell you we’re licking the British on the water, whatever we may be doing on land. Commodore Barney captured fifteen vessels in the forty-five days he was running along the coast, and news has come that the _Wasp_ has captured the _Frolic_, and the _United States_ has the _Macedonian_, if last reports are correct.” “Good!” cried Lettice. “I wonder how Rhoda likes that.” James looked down, and with the toe of his boot rolled over one of the hounds at his feet; then he looked up, saying, “And Robert Clinton, how do you suppose he takes it?” Lettice gave her head a little toss. “What do I care how he takes it! Is there news from Canada, Brother William?” “No good news. We must be content with our victories at sea, for the present. Our little state has nothing to be ashamed of in her naval exploits.”