"Yes," knowingly spoke Miranda. "Hettie, Scipio, Dilsie, you-all can go 'long back to your work now." She wrinkled confidentially to the officer.
"Yes," he replied, "we shall certainly engage the enemy's ships to-morrow, and you ladies must--"
"Must not desert our home, sir," said Anna.
"Nor our faithful servants," added the other two.
"Ah, ladies, but if we should have to make this house a field hospital, with all the dreadful--"
"Oh, that settles it," cried the three, "we stay!"