"Why, mass'r, you no hab go to bed yet," said Poopy, still feeling and expressing surprise at her master's unwonted irregularity. "Is you ill?"
"Not at all, my good girl; only a little tired. It is not a time for me to take much rest when the savages are said to be about to attack us."
"When is they coming?" inquired the girl, meekly.
The pastor smiled as he replied, "That is best known to themselves, Poopy. Do you think it likely that murderers or thieves would send to let us know when they were coming."
"Hee! hee!" laughed Poopy, with an immense display of teeth and gums.
"No; her be sound 'sleep wid her two eye shut tight up, dis fashion, and her mout' wide open--so."
The representation of Alice's condition, as given by her maid, although hideously unlike the beautiful object they were meant to call up to her father's mind, were sufficiently expressive and comprehensible.
"Go wake her, my girl, and let us have breakfast as soon as you can. Has Will Corrie been here this morning?"
"Hims bin here all night," replied the girl, with a broad grin (and the breadth of Poopy's _broad_ grin was almost appalling).
"What mean you,--has he slept in this house all night?"
"Yes, no!" exclaimed Mr. Mason. "Come, Poopy, don't be stupid, explain yourself."
"Hee! hee! hee! yes, ho! ho! ho!" laughed Poopy, as if the idea of explaining herself was about the richest joke she had listened to since she was born. "Hee! hee! me no can 'xplain; but you com here an' see."
So saying, she conducted her wondering master to the front door of the cottage, where, across the threshold, directly under the porch, lay the form of the redoubted Corrie, fast asleep, and armed to the teeth!
In order to explain the cause of this remarkable apparition, we think it justifiable to state to the reader, in confidence, that young Master Corrie was deeply in love with the fair Alice. With all his reckless drollery of disposition, the boy was intensely romantic and enthusiastic; and, feeling that the unsettled condition of the times endangered the welfare of his lady-love, he resolved, like a true knight, to arm himself and guard the threshold of her door with his own body.
In the deep silence of the night he buckled on a saber, the blade of which, by reason of its having been broken, was barely eight inches long, and the hilt whereof was battered and rusty. He also stuck a huge brass-mounted cavalry pistol in his belt, in the virtue of which he had great faith, having only two days before shot with it a green-headed parrot at a distance of two yards. The distance was not great, to be sure, but it was enough for his purpose--intending, as he did, to meet his foe, when the moment of action should come, in close conflict, and thrust the muzzle of his weapon down the said foe's throat before condescending to draw the trigger.