door for fun, and shut Biddy out as a punishment for 'gallivanting,' of which he didn't approve. Such a rogue as that boy was!"
"But didn't the robbers ever come?" cried Tom, enjoying the joke, but feeling defrauded of the fight.
"Never, my dear; but we had our 'scare,' and tested our courage, and that was a great satisfaction of course," answered grandma, placidly.
"Well, I think you were the bravest of the lot. I'd like to have seen you flourishing round there with your hatchet," added Tom, admiringly, and the old lady looked as much pleased with the compliment as if she had been a girl.
"I choose this," said Polly, holding up a long white kid glove, shrunken and yellow with time, but looking as if it had a history.
"Ah, that now has a story worth telling!" cried grandma; adding, proudly, "treat that old glove respectfully, my children, for Lafayette's honored hand has touched it."
"Oh, grandma, did you wear it? Did you see him? Do tell us all about it, and that will be the best of the whole," cried Polly, who loved history, and knew a good deal about the gallant Frenchman and his brave life.
Grandma loved to tell this story, and always assumed her most imposing air to do honor to her theme. Drawing herself up, therefore, she folded her hands, and after two or three little "hems," began with an absent look, as if her eyes beheld a far-away time, which brightened as she gazed.
"The first visit of Lafayette was before my time,
