Parenting Quote by Deborah G. Felder

““Molly!” exclaimed her father, dropping his end of the box and rushing over to her. “Are you hurt?” “N-No, I don’t think so,” she stammered, as she struggled to get up. Pa helped her to her feet. “How long have you been hiding up there, young lady?” he asked her sternly. “And how much did you hear?” Molly told him how she had crept out of the house after hearing Flora whinny, and what she had seen and heard. When she finished, Uncle William began to chuckle. “You’d make a good spy, Molly,” he said, his eyes twinkling. “I can’t believe you were hiding in the hayloft all this time, and we never even suspected it! Until you fell into the haystack, that is.” “She has to learn that this isn’t a game, Will,” Molly’s father said sharply. He looked at his daughter with a serious expression. “We’re all in danger Molly. No one must ever know about our smuggling muskets, or that Richard Butler is an American spy. Do you understand that?” “Yes, Pa,” Molly said soberly. “I understand. I won’t let you down, I promise.” “Good,” Pa said briskly. “Now, I want you to go back to the house with Ethan. You can help him pack some food to take with him.” Molly nodded and started for the door. “I think you’d better use the window, like the rest of us,” Uncle William said, with a grin. “Unless you’d rather go out the way you came in--through the hayloft.” “I think I’ve had enough of that hayloft for one night,” Molly replied, smiling back at him.””

— Deborah G. Felder