one am
`` Very well , '' said she , `` if you can handle a musket like a man , here be the chance . Take this musket , and I will take one , and Letitia will take one , and we will leave the door ajar , so we can dash in if hard-pressed , and we will keep watch lest father and mother be attacked unawares at the threshold . '' Letitia was horribly afraid , but she had learned in the Spartan household of her ancestors , to be more afraid of fear than of anything else , so she pulled a blanket over her head and shouldered a musket , and , after the elder Letitia had unbarred and unbolted the door , they all stepped out into the night , armed and ready to guard the house . `` Candace can handle a musket and so can little Phyllis at a pinch , '' said the elder Letitia thoughtfully , `` but I for one am thinking that your Injuns are catamounts , Josephus Peabody . '' `` They are Injuns , '' said the boy stoutly , peering out into the gloom . They were in perfect darkness , for it was a cloudy night , and not a ray came from the house-door . `` For what reason were you abroad to-night ? ''