"My child-life was one full of excitement, yet little pleasure. What with our struggles between hostile Indians and the soldiers of King George, we had small time for play or serenity of living. Yet perhaps we children enjoyed our play hours more than do those of the present time, for they were so few and far between,--those peaceful, happy days,--they were treasured all the more. Of the many strange events that happened in those far-off years I have no time to tell you now. My parents had seven children--there were six boys. I was the only daughter, and next to the youngest, who was my favorite brother, one year my junior, sunny, brave-hearted, and loyal in all things. "While the men were at work in the fields, and women busy in the house, the children on different homesteads kept watch for Indians. My brothers, of course, took turns on our place; and sometimes in the harvest days, when many hands were needed out doors, and I was not helping my mother in spinning the flax, I was set on the lookout. Those were days when the stoutest heart among us would quail at times, for danger and horror were on every side; and I--well, I was none of the bravest. But on the days when Harold knew I would be most likely put on guard he would contrive so as to have his work near the house, and so watch over me. In order to do so he would rise before the rest, and going alone in his far corner of the field,--his only defence a faithful dog, and a trusty rifle over which the dog kept watch while his master worked,--he would finish his field labor for the day by the time I was ready for my task. It was a mutual understanding between himself and my father that this should be; and I think that while my parents feared for the boy's safety they were proud of his courage that dared so much for love. "Well, we grew as children grow, through war and peace, through storm and calm. And when the first gun of independence was fired on Bunker Hill my father and brothers armed themselves and joined the numbers there. Two of my brothers were killed outright in their first encounter with Gage's men. In the third battle another was taken prisoner, and with four others tried for 'treason against the king,' and shot. My mother was a type of the bravest women of that period, but I thought she would have died then, for he was her eldest born, upon whom she had always looked with pride. "I was eighteen then, and my heart and hands were full; but so were those of many another woman. In that time girls were _women_ and boys were _men_; it was needed so, you may be sure. Well, after a while the struggle was over, you know, and they came home,--father, Robert, George, and Hal. We were expecting them, and stood at the door watching,--mother and I. And then--and then--we saw them coming, not in triumph, as we expected, but slowly, a mournful little procession. We saw father, Robert, and George, and a few neighbors, and they were bearing a burden we could not see.