Lucia and Luretta were sure that Anna must have had her verse all ready to repeat; and even Rebecca, who knew that Anna rhymed words easily, thought that Anna had prepared this birthday greeting, and was very proud of her little sister. But at the words, "golden beads," a great hope came into Rebecca's heart. Perhaps that was what the _Polly_ was bringing for her.

"I am to have a rabbit," said Anna happily. "What shall I name it?"

Lucia did not seem much interested in anything so ordinary as a rabbit, and had no suggestion to offer, and while Anna and Luretta were deciding this question Lucia whispered to Rebecca: "When I go home be sure and walk a little way; I want to tell you something important."

Rebby nodded smilingly. For the moment she had entirely forgotten the uncomfortable secret that Lucia had confided in her, and was thinking only that it was really a wonderful thing to have a fourteenth birthday.

While the four little girls were talking happily in the living-room, Mrs. Weston was trying to think up some sort of a birthday treat for them. There was no white sugar in the house, or, for that matter, in the entire settlement. But the Westons had a small store of maple sugar, made from the sap of the maple trees, and Mrs. Weston quickly decided that this should be used for Rebecca's birthday celebration. She hurried to the pantry, and when an hour later she opened the door and called the girls to the kitchen they all exclaimed with delight.

The round table was covered with a shining white cloth, and Mrs. Weston had set it with her fine blue plates, that she had brought from Boston when she came to Machias, and that were seldom used.

By each plate stood a l.u.s.tre mug filled with milk, and in the centre of the table was a heart-shaped cake frosted with maple sugar.

"Oh, Mother! This is my very best birthday!" Rebecca declared happily, and as the other girls seated themselves at the table she stood with bowed head to say the "grace" of thanks before cutting her birthday cake.

Anna wished to herself that Melvina Lyon might have been one of the guests, and shared the delicious cake. She wondered just how Melvina would behave on such an occasion; and was so careful with her crumbs, and so polite in her replies to the other girls that Lucia and Rebecca began to laugh, thinking Anna was making believe for their amus.e.m.e.nt.

Before the little girls left the table Mr. Weston appeared at the kitchen door, and was quite ready to taste the cake, and again remind Rebecca of the gift the _Polly_ was bringing.

"Let me whisper, Father," she responded, drawing his head down near her own. "It's _beads_!" she whispered, and when her father laughed she was sure she was right, and almost as happy as if the longed-for gift was around her neck.

"Well, Paul and I found the liberty tree," said Mr. Weston, "and I cut it down and trimmed it save for its green plume. Paul is towing it downstream now; and when we set it up 'twill be a credit to the town."

Lucia rose quickly. "I must be going home," she said, a little flush coming into her cheeks. "I have enjoyed the afternoon very much," she added politely; for if Melvina Lyon was the smartest girl in the village no one could say that any of the other little girls ever forgot to be well-mannered.

Rebecca followed her friend to the door, and they walked down the path together, while Anna and Luretta questioned Mr. Weston eagerly as to Paul's success in capturing a rabbit, and were made happy with the news that he had secured two young rabbits, and that they were safe in the canoe which Paul was now paddling down the river, towing the liberty tree behind him.

Rebecca and Lucia had gone but a few steps when Lucia whispered: "We mustn't let them put up the liberty tree. Oh, Rebby, why didn't you try to stop your father going after it?"

"How could I?" responded Rebecca. "And when I said: 'Why must Machias have a liberty pole?' he was ill pleased with me, and said I must be loyal to America's rights. Oh, Lucia! are you sure that----"

But Lucia's hand was held firmly over Rebby's mouth. "Ssh. Don't speak it aloud, Rebby. For 'twould make great trouble for my father, in any case, if people even guessed that he knew the plans of the British. But I could not help hearing what he said to Mother the day he sailed. But, Rebby, we must do something so the liberty pole will not be set up."

"Can't we tell my father?" suggested Rebecca hopefully.

"Oh, Rebecca Weston! If your father knew what I told you he would do his best to have the liberty pole put up at once," declared Lucia.

"But I have a plan, and you must help me," she continued. "Paul Foster will bring the sapling close in sh.o.r.e near his father's shop, and it will rest there to-night; and when it is dark we must go down and cut it loose and push it out so that the current will take it downstream, and the tide will carry it out to sea. Then, before they can get another one, the _Polly_ will come sailing in and all will be well."

"Won't the British ship come if we do not put up the liberty pole?"

asked Rebecca.

"There! You have said it aloud, Rebby!" whispered Lucia reprovingly.

"Not all of it; but how can we go out of our houses in the night, Lucia?" replied Rebecca, who had begun to think that perhaps Lucia's plan was the easiest way to save the village. For Lucia had told her friend that the _Polly_, of which Lucia's father was captain, and the sloop _Unity_, owned and sailed by a Captain Jones of Boston, would be escorted to Machias by an armed British ship; and if a liberty pole was set up the British would fire upon the town. So it was no wonder that Rebecca was frightened and ready to listen to Lucia's plan to avert the danger.

She did not know that her father and other men of the settlement were already beginning to doubt the loyalty of the two captains to America's cause.

"It will be easy enough to slip out when everybody is asleep," Lucia replied to Rebecca's question. "We can meet at Mr. Foster's shop. If I get there first I will wait, and if you get there before me you must wait. As near ten o'clock as we can. And then it won't take us but a few minutes to push the sapling out into the current. Just think, Rebby, we will save the town, and n.o.body will ever know it but just us two."

Rebby sighed. She wished that Lucia's father had kept the secret to himself. Besides, she was not sure that it was right to prevent the liberty pole from being set up. But that the town should be fired upon by a British man-of-war, and everyone killed, as Lucia a.s.sured her, when it could be prevented by her pushing a pine sapling into the current of the river, made the little girl decide that she would do as Lucia had planned.

"All right. I will be there, at the blacksmith shop, when it strikes ten to-night," she agreed, and the friends parted.

Rebecca walked slowly toward home, forgetting all the joy of the afternoon; forgetting even that it was her fourteenth birthday, and that a string of gold beads for her was probably on board the _Polly_.

Paul Foster towed the fine sapling to the very place that Lucia had mentioned, and his father came to the sh.o.r.e and looked at it admiringly as he helped Paul make it secure. "It is safely fastened and no harm can come to it," Mr. Foster said after they had drawn the tree partly from the water. Paul drew his canoe up on the beach, and taking the rabbits in the stout canvas bag, started for home.

Anna and Luretta were both on the watch for him, and came running to meet him. Anna now wore her every-day dress of gingham, and in her eagerness to see the rabbits she had quite forgotten to try and behave like Melvina Lyon.

"Why, it is a pity to separate the little creatures," Paul declared, when Luretta told him that she had promised one to Anna. "See how close they keep together. And this box is big enough for them both. And they are so young they must be fed very carefully for a time."

"I know what we can do," declared Anna; "my rabbit can live here until he is a little larger, and then my father will make a box for him and I can take him home."

Paul said that would do very well, and that Anna could come each day and learn how to feed the little creatures, and what they liked best to eat.

"But which one is to be mine? They are exactly alike," said Anna, a little anxiously. And indeed there was no way of telling the rabbits apart, so Anna and Luretta agreed that when the time came to separate them it would not matter which one Anna chose for her own.

At supper time Anna could talk of nothing but the rabbits, and had so much to say that her father and mother did not notice how silent Rebecca was.

The little household retired early, and by eight o'clock Rebecca was in bed, but alert to every sound, and resolved not to go to sleep. The sisters slept together, and in a few minutes Anna was sound asleep.

Rebecca heard the clock strike nine, then very quietly she got out of bed and dressed. Her moccasins made no noise as she stepped cautiously along the narrow pa.s.sage, and down the steep stairway. She lifted the big bar that fastened the door and stood it against the wall, then she opened the door, closing it carefully behind her, and stepped out into the warm darkness of the spring night.

CHAPTER VII

"A TRAITOR'S DEED"

It was one of those May evenings that promise that summer is close at hand. The air was soft and warm; there was no wind, and in the clear starlight Rebecca could see the shadows of the tall elm tree near the blacksmith shop, and the silvery line of the softly flowing river. As she stood waiting for Lucia she looked up into the clear skies and traced the stars forming the Big Dipper, nearly over her head. Low down in the west Jupiter shone brightly, and the broad band of shimmering stars that formed the Milky Way stretched like a jeweled necklace across the heavens. The little village slept peacefully along the river's bank; not a light was to be seen in any of the shadowy houses. A chorus of frogs from the marshes sounded shrilly through the quiet. In years to come, when Rebecca heard the first frogs sounding their call to spring, she was to recall that beautiful night when she stole out to try and save the town, as she believed, from being fired on by a British gunboat.

She had made so early a start that she had to wait what seemed a very long time for Lucia, who approached so quietly that not until she touched Rebby's arm did Rebby know of her coming.

"I am late, and I nearly had to give up coming because Mother did not get to sleep," Lucia explained, as the two girls hurried down to the river. "She is so worried about Father," continued Lucia; "she says that since the Americans defeated the English at Lexington they may drive them out of Boston as well."

"Of course they will," declared Rebecca, surprised that anyone could imagine the righteous cause of America defeated. "And if the English gunboat comes in here the Machias men will capture it," she added.

"Well, I don't know," responded Lucia despondently. "But if it destroyed the town there wouldn't be anyone left to capture it; and that is why we must push that liberty tree offsh.o.r.e."

The girls were both strong, and Lucia had brought a sharp knife with which to cut the rope holding the tree to a stake on the bank, so it did not take them long to push the tree clear of the sh.o.r.e. They found a long pole near by, and with this they were able to swing the liberty tree out until the current of the river came to their aid and carried it slowly along.

"How slowly it moves," said Rebecca impatiently, as they stood watching it move steadily downstream.

"But it will be well down the bay before morning," said Lucia, "and we must get home as quickly as we can. I wish my father could know that there will not be a liberty pole set up in Machias."

Rebecca stopped short. "No liberty pole, Lucia Horton? Indeed there will be. Why, my father says that all the loyal settlements along the Maine coast are setting up one; and as soon as the old British gunboat is out of sight Machias will put up a liberty tree. Perhaps 'twill even be set up while the gunboat lies in this harbor."