“When they wanted a good crop, they’d light the woods and acres of trees would burn. They’s always a good crop of huckleberries after a fire. But one of ’em, Sheldon, went to the penitentiary for it, and there ain’t been any since. Now they’s often a constabulary round and they know it. This was Sheldon’s mammy what you was visitin’. Sheldon has a strong-willed wife too. The women they’s gettin’ new notions. They go down sometimes an’ look at the Chambersburg trolley, and they twist up their hair different. It’s the women’s day, miss.” Elizabeth thanked them for their protection, and walked on. After a while she smiled grimly. On the other side of the mountain they thought that John Baring had set Chambersburg afire. Here they thought he had lost the battle. But the battle hadn’t been lost. It was a benighted community, indeed! Herbert was nervously watching for her when she reached home. “You mustn’t do this again!” said he crossly. Elizabeth looked at him. If Herbert was going to be cross in addition to being babyish, then she would have trouble. “I shan’t,” she promised. “Did you find out anything?” “Nothing,” said Elizabeth, protecting him once more. Chapter V AN ALARMING MESSAGE One pleasant afternoon in July Colonel Thomas came again, bringing Elizabeth the books which he had promised. He made the journey not only for her sake, but to satisfy his own desire for an audience. He had begun to believe that the position of Elizabeth and her brother would not be intolerable if they had courage to persist. His car waited at the road’s edge, and he walked in to the door. “A car doesn’t seem to belong in here, does it?” said he. “We’re going to have one ourselves some day,” declared Elizabeth. “You’re going to stay, are you?” “I shan’t be driven away. I’ve really had a peaceful time for three weeks. We sold our goods anonymously in Chambersburg.” Elizabeth smiled wearily. “Please come and sit down. You are our first unarmed caller.” “They haven’t bothered you again?” “No.” “Perhaps they are really frightened,” said Colonel Thomas. “I came up partly to see you and partly to have a look at the ruins of the old furnace.” “Do you mean the ruins near the park?” “Yes; that was Thad Stevens’s furnace and the Confederates burned it. Great man, Thaddeus Stevens, young lady, as great as the hatred felt for him and that’s saying a good deal. He had a vision--the equality of men before their Creator and nothing else mattered, personal safety least of all. He lived here in this county from 1818 till 1842, and this county sent him to the legislature, as its representative. When he first came South, he saw in Maryland a slave girl being sold. He had three hundred dollars in the world to buy his law library, and instead he bought the girl and set her free. He was a representative from this district when he said, ‘Hereditary distinctions of rank are sufficiently odious; but that which is founded upon poverty is infinitely more so.’