2
HAS A VISITOR 185
XIII. AUNT MARIA DECIDES THE QUESTION 201
XIV. TABITHA'S ROOM-MATE 221
XV. THE FIRST NIGHT AT IVY HALL 239
XVI. MADAME'S ADVICE 253
XVII. HOLIDAY PLANS 269
XVIII. TABITHA'S CHRISTMAS 283
XIX. A STRIKE! 299
XX. A HAPPY HOME 309
CHAPTER I
THE HATEFUL NAME
"She leaned far out on the window-sill, And shook it forth with a royal will.
'Shoot, if you must, this old gray head, But spare your country's flag,' she said."
The black eyes of the little speaker burned with fiery indignation as she hurled these words of defiance at a ten-quart pail of blackberries standing in the middle of the dusty road where she had set it when the emotion of her recital had overcome her to such a degree that mere words were no longer effective and gestures had become absolutely necessary. She was living it herself. What did it matter that there was no rebel army confronting her, what did it matter that the town of Frederick lay hundreds of miles away, what did it matter that she was merely a slip of a girl living fifty years after the terrible scenes of war which inspired the words she was reciting?
The whole picture lay as vividly before her as if she had been Dame Barbara herself, and she entered into the spirit of the production with such vim that her actual surroundings were forgotten. Her thin, peaked face, browned by sun and wind, was glorified with patriotism, and her voice rang sharp with the intensity of feeling. Having no flag to shake in the face of the approaching enemy, she pulled a mullein stalk growing among the tall grass and flaunted it so vigorously that in leaning over her imaginary window-sill she lost her balance and was nearly capsized into her pail of luscious berries.
A rude laugh interrupted her and she was brought to earth with a suddenness that left her breathless and crimson with embarrassment beside th