“Then all three began to curse and swear in a horrible manner. And I began to sing as loud as I could: “‘Three blind mice! they all ran after the farmer’s wife!’ “Then, still cursing and swearing, like a crew of pirates in a sea fight, they went to the flagpole and began to climb it. Seeing which, I went and got father’s gun, examined it and found it all right. It was a double-barreled gun; and I carried it to the window and rested it on the sill and pointed its muzzle toward the top of the pole. The three men had reached it then, and were tearing away at the flag to get it loose. “‘Come down!’ I shouted, ‘or as sure as I live I will fire!’ “They answered me with curses. Now, I am no sharpshooter, so what followed was all owing to chance. Using the window sill as a rest, I trained the gun as well as I could, pointed it toward them, and pulled the trigger. And simultaneously with the flash and the report one of the men uttered a fierce yell, and fell to the ground. Oh, Heaven, Minie, what a tremendous revulsion of feeling I experienced when I thought that I had killed a man! I do not know whether I could have fired again. However, the two others did not wait for the discharge of the second barrel. They slid down that pole like monkeys, and ran off like quarter horses, leaving their wounded upon the field. Then I laughed. I could not help it; I sung out: “‘See how they run! see how they run!’ “And then, in my excitement, I blazed away at them with the other barrel. But they were so far off that only one of them got struck, and in the back, and with a spent ball, for I saw him stop suddenly, with a great howl, clap his hands behind him, bend backward, and then run faster than before.” “I call that a brilliant victory,” said Farmer Fielding, nodding toward his friends. But the Lutheran minister and his daughter were too gravely interested in Elfie’s narrative to express any admiration of her feat. “I am not proud of the victory,” said Elfie, candidly. “I was delighted with it—elated with it—but not proud of it. How could I be? For it is true, I was one girl against three men, yet I had the great advantage of fighting behind my entrenchments, while they were exposed. I had also firearms, which they had not. No, I don’t think I have any reason to vaunt myself for this easy victory.” “But the man you shot from the pole! Oh, my dear Elfie, I hope—I hope he was not killed!” said Erminie, clasping her hands in the earnestness of her anxiety. “As soon as the other two men had run away, I set the old gun up in its place, and ran downstairs to the hall, where I found my faithful Ned guarding the door with an old blunderbuss. “‘Miss Allfrida!’ he said, ‘I told you we’d have a fight for the old flag, and we’s had it; and it won’t be the last, nuther. They’re gone now, but they’ll come back to-night in stronger numbers.’ “‘I don’t care, Ned,’ I said; ‘come one, come all, this house shall fly from off its firm ground as soon as I!’