come after me when I am gone. There will be no handsomer, happier twain in
the province."

Daisy flushed crimson and looked pained at the old gentleman's childish
babbling, and I made haste to get away.




Chapter XXVIII.

An Old Acquaintance Turns Up In Manacles.



A truly miserable fourteen months' period of thankless labor, and of
unending yet aimless anxiety, follows here in my story. It was my business
to remain in the Valley, watch its suspected figures, invigorate and
encourage its militia, and combat the secret slander and open cowardice
which there menaced the cause of liberty. Fortunately I had, from time to
time, assurance that my work was of actual advantage to General Schuyler,
and occasionally I had leisure hours to spend at the Cedars. If these
pleasurable things had been denied me, there would have been in the whole
Continental service no more unenviable post than mine.

I have never pretended, least of all to myself, to be much enamoured of
fighting; nor have I ever been regardless of personal comfort, and of the
satisfaction of having warm clothes, sufficient food, and a good bed in
which to sleep. Yet I would gladly have exchanged my state for that of the
most wretched private soldier, barefooted and famished, on the frozen