With a couple of stout sticks they beat out the flame, kicking snow over the coals, and extinguishing the last bit of fire.
Mrs. Scott had helped Louise toward the ice, but Faith had lingered a moment. As one of the soldiers turned from the fire he found himself facing a little fur-clad figure with flushed cheeks and angry eyes.
“That was our fire. You had no business to put it out,” Faith declared.
“Oh, ho! What’s this?” laughed the soldier. “Do you own this lake? Or perhaps you are our new captain?”
“It is a mean thing to spoil our fire,” continued Faith; “we wouldn’t do you any harm.”
“I’m not so sure about that,” replied the soldier. “You have a pretty fierce expression,” and with another kick at the fire, and a “good-bye, little rebel,” to Faith, the two soldiers started back to the fort. The skaters now, troubled and angry by the unfriendly interference, were taking off their skates and starting for home.
“I wish American soldiers were in that fort,” said Nat Beaman.
“Why don’t you ask Colonel Allen to come and take it?” asked Faith earnestly; she was quite sure that Ethan Allen could do anything he attempted.
“Ask him yourself,” responded Nathan laughingly.
“I guess I will,” Faith thought to herself, as she followed Aunt Prissy up the field toward home. “Perhaps that would be doing something to help Americans.”