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BOOKS BY ELSIE SINGMASTER


    When Sarah Saved the Day
    When Sarah Went to School
    Gettysburg
    Katy Gaumer
    Emmeline
    The Long Journey
    The Life of Martin Luther
    John Baring's House
    Basil Everman
    Ellen Levis
    Bennett Malin
    The Hidden Road
    A Boy at Gettysburg
    Bred in the Bone
    Keller's Anna Ruth
    'Sewing Susie'
    What Everybody Wanted
    Virginia's Bandit
    You Make Your Own Luck
    A Little Money Ahead




                           WHEN SARAH SAVED
                                THE DAY


[Illustration: SARAH DID NOT SPEAK, SHE ONLY HID HER EYES (page 126)]




                           WHEN SARAH SAVED
                                THE DAY

                          BY ELSIE SINGMASTER

                          WITH ILLUSTRATIONS

                            [Illustration]

                          BOSTON AND NEW YORK
                       HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
                     The Riverside Press Cambridge


                 COPYRIGHT, 1909, BY ELSIE SINGMASTER

         ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INCLUDING THE RIGHT TO REPRODUCE
                THIS BOOK OR PARTS THEREOF IN ANY FORM

                       _Published October 1909_


                         PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.




TO CAROLINE HOOPES SINGMASTER




CONTENTS


     I. Uncle Daniel's Offer             1

    II. The Rebels take to Arms         24

   III. Uncle Daniel steals a March     44

    IV. There is Company to Supper      62

     V. The Blow falls                  79

    VI. The Orphans' Court              97

   VII. "And now We will go Home"      116




ILLUSTRATIONS


   SARAH DID NOT SPEAK, SHE ONLY HID HER EYES (Page 126)  _Frontispiece_

   GO AWAY AND LEAVE ME WITH MY CHILDREN                     20

   THE STATION AGENT LOOKED AT THEM CURIOUSLY                94

   UNCLE DANIEL SMILED AND DREW OUT TWO SHINING DOLLARS     112




                       WHEN SARAH SAVED THE DAY

                               CHAPTER I

                         UNCLE DANIEL'S OFFER


Sarah Wenner, who was fifteen years old, but who did not look more than
twelve, hesitated in the doorway between the kitchen and the best room,
a great tray of tumblers and cups in her hands.

"Those knives and forks we keep always in here, Aunt Mena. We do not
use them for every day."

Her aunt, Mena Illick, lifted the knives from the drawer where she had
laid them. One could see from her snapping black eyes that she did not
enjoy being directed by Sarah. But order was order, and no one ever
justly accused a Pennsylvania German housewife of not putting things
where they belonged. She laid the knives on the table for Sarah to put
away.

The kitchen seemed strangely lonely and empty that evening, in spite of
the number of persons who were there.

Besides little Sarah, who was the head of the Wenner household, now
that the father was dead and the oldest son had gone away, and her Aunt
Mena, who had driven thither for the funeral that afternoon, there was
an uncle, Daniel Swartz, and his wife Eliza, who was just then wringing
out the tea-towels from a pan of scalding suds, and the Swartzes' hired
man, Jacob Kalb, short and stout, with a smooth-shaven face and tiny
black eyes.

Daniel Swartz sat beside the wide table, the hired man by his side.
On chairs against the wall, sitting now upright, now leaning against
each other when sleep overpowered them, were the Wenner twins, Louisa
Ellen and Ellen Louisa, whose combination of excessive slenderness and
appearance of good health could be due only to constant activity. In
their waking moments they looked not unlike eager little grasshoppers,
ready for a spring.

The last member of the party lay peacefully sleeping on the deep settle
before the fireplace. His wide blue eyes were closed, his chubby arms
thrown above his head. Worn with the excitement of the day, too young
to realize that the cheerful, merry father whom they had carried away
that afternoon would never return, he slept on, the only one entirely
at ease.

Daniel Swartz rose every few minutes to cover him more thoroughly. Aunt
'Liza and Aunt Mena watched Uncle Daniel, the eyes of the twins rested
with scornful disfavor upon Jacob Kalb, and Sarah watched them all. Her
tired eyes widened with apprehension when she saw her uncle bend over
Albert as if he were his own, and she bit her lips