Now, Billy, light the candles; for if our friends
must resume their journey to-morrow, it is full time to retire."
Betty found the little room assigned to her, with Billy's assistance,
but before he left her he pointed out two small holes near the window
frame, where bullets had entered and remained buried in the woodwork;
and as Betty curled herself up in the centre of the great feather-bed,
she thought, with a throb of her girlish heart, that perhaps she, too,
might see some of the terrors of war before she returned to the shelter
of her dear Litchfield home.
The next morning dawned cold and chilly; a few flakes of snow floated
through the air, and Mrs. Beebe urged strongly the wisdom of lying over
for twenty-four hours, lest a storm should come and render the roads
impassable. But Mrs. Seymour, after a consultation with Caesar, decided
that it was best to push on; winter was approaching, and each day made
the journey less feasible. There was a fairly good road between them and
White Plains, and now that she had started she was impatient to reach
the city. Betty, too, was eager to be off, so with many warm thanks,
they again packed the coach and said farewell to the hospitable Beebes,
who had insisted on adding fresh stores of provisions to their hamper;
and Billy's last act of friendliness was to slip into Betty's hand a
package of taffy, of his own manufacture, which he assured her "was not
over-sticky, provided you use care in biting it.
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