"Gra'mere thinks I may sit up a little while this afternoon. I had no fever yesterday nor last night."
"Oh, mother, I was to tell you that Cornwallis has—it's a long word that has slipped out of my mind. Nelly Mullin said her husband would come home and my father. Kirsty Boyle rang two bells——"
"Oh, what was it? Go and ask grandfather, child," and the mother half rose in her eagerness.
"It was 'sur-ren-dered' with his army. Father has gone to see. And then the war will end."
"Oh, thank heaven, the good God, and all the saints, for I think they must have interceded. They must be glad when dreadful wars come to an end."
She laid her head back on the pillow and the tears fringed her dark lashes.
The child was thinking, puzzling over something. Then she said suddenly, "What is my father like? I seem to remember just a little—that he carried me about in his arms and that we all cried a good deal."
"It was three years and more ago. He loved us very much. But he felt the country needed him. And the good Allfather has kept him safe. He has never been wounded or taken prisoner, and if he comes back to us——"
"But what is surrendered?"
"Why, the British army has given up. And Lord Cornwallis is a great man. England, I believe, thought he could conquer the Colonies. Oh, Daffodil, you are too little to understand;" in a sort of helpless fashion.