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Show ,,, hi i ii hi, , .,,. ' fiZ. ' "JUJ'" '...u,,,,.,,.,,,. ; In the Days of Poor Richard :l I Ey IRVING BACHELLER 1- J c-gh, by IRVING BACHELLER j y I ' j e- a... - . tm 3 CHAPTER XIA i 19 The First Fourth of July. ,e jlrg. Scott and lier child lived Id 0le family of General Herkimer for n month or so. Settlers remote from j t0Wns and villages had abandoned their farms. The Indians had gone Into the great north bush perhaps to meet the British army which was said to be coming down from Canada in 3 nppalling numbers. Hostilities in the T , neighborhood of The Long House had ceased. The great Indian highway and e ! its villages were deserted save by '" ' voung children and a few ancient red " men "and squaws, too old for travel. s ! Late In June, Jack and Solomon were i ordered to report to General Schuyler ; at Albany. i "We're getting shoveled eroun' plenty," Solomon declared. "We'll take the womern an' the boy with us " an' paddle down the Mohawk to Al- 1 bany. They kind o' fell from heaven 8 Into our hands an' we got to look 8 a'ter 'em faithful. Fust ye know ol' 3 Herk'll be movin' er swallered hull by the British an' the Injuns, like Jonah 3 was by the whale, then what 'ud be- 1 come o" her an' the Leetle Cricket? r We got to look a'ter 'em." 5 I "I think my pother will be glad to ' i give them a home," said Jack. "She ' really needs some help in the house 1 j these days." r The Scotts' buildings had been burned by the Indians and their boats 5 destroyed save one large canoe which 1 had happened to be on the south shore of the river out of their reach. In this, ' Jack and Solomon and "Mis' Scott" 1 and the Little Cricket set out with ' loaded packs in the moon of the new ' i leaf, to use a phrase of the Mohawks, t for the city of the Great river. They ' had a carry at Wolf Riff and some 1 shorter ones but in the main it was t a smooth and delightful journey, be- 1 tween wooded shores, down the long r winding lane of the Mohawk. With out fear of the Indians they were able I j,' to shoot deer and wild fowl and build , I a fire on almost any part of the shore. 1 I Mrs. Scott insisted on her right to do I the cooking. Jack kept a diary of the : trip, some pages of which the historian lias read. From them we learn : 1 "Mrs. Scott has bravely run the 1 gauntlet of her sorrows. Now there is a new look in her face. She is a 1 black-eyed.y dark-haired. energetic, cumeiy woman of forty with cheeks as rod a a ripe strawberry- Solomon calls Iher 'middle sized' but she seems to bel large enough to fill his eye. He sl)owshcr great deference and chooses his words with particular care when he speaks to her. Of late be has taken to singing. She and the hoy seem to have stirred the depths in him and curious tilings are coming up to the surface sons and stories and droll remarks and playful trieks and an unusual un-usual amount of laughter. I suppose that it is the spirit of youth in him, stunned by his great sorrow. Now touched by miraculous hands be is coming back to his old self. There can be no doubt of this: the man is ten years younger than when I first knew him even. The Little Cricket has laid hold of his heart. Whig sits between the feet of Solomon in the stern during dur-ing the day and insists upon sleeping with him at night. "One morning my old friend was laughing as we stood on the river hunk washing ourselves. "'What are you laughing at?' 1 asked. "That gol durn leetle skeezucks !' he answered. 'He were kickin' all night like a mule flghtin' a bumble hee. 'Twere a cold night an' I held him ag'in me to keep the leetle cuss warm. '"Hadn't you better let him sleep with his mother?' I asked. '"Wall, if it takes two to do his Blecpin' mehbe I better be the one that suffers. Ain't she a likely womern?' ' "Of course I agreed, for it was evident evi-dent that she was likely, sometime, to n'ake him an excellent wife and the "'might of that made me happy." They had fared along down by the "Hie forts and villages traveling stealthily at night in tree shadows through "the Tory zone," as the vicin-'S' vicin-'S' of Fort Johnson was then called, camping, now and then, in deserted farmhouses or putting up at villnae Inns. Setting out from their hist camp n hour before daylight they had heard lie booming f cannon at sunrise. Solomon stopped his paddle and listened. lis-tened. 'Tly the hide an' horns o' the devil !" e exclaimed. "1 wonder if the Lritisli hilve gin down to Albany." They were alarmed tint:1 they bailed 8 nian on the river road and learned ,hit Albany was having a celebration. "What be they celehratin'?" Solo-Rn Solo-Rn asked. "T1,e Declaration o' Independence," "e citizen answered. 'It's a good idee," said Solomon, ""hen we git tlinr this 'ere ol' ride o' ne '11 do some talkin' if it has a tlmnst." Church bells were ringing as they fieu'"ed the city. Its inhabitants were embled on the river front. The declaration was read and then Gon-Schuyler Gon-Schuyler made a brief address 'Wut the peril coming down from the He s'.4 that a large force under General Burgoyne was on Lake Cbamplain and that the Britisli were then holding a council with the Six Nations on the shore of the lake above Crown Point. "At present we are unprepared to meet this great force but I suppose that help will come and that we shall not be dismayed. The modest man who leads the British army from the north declares in his proclamation that lie is 'John Burgoyne, Esq., lieutenant general of his majesty's forces in America, colonel of the Queen's Regiment Regi-ment of Li-iit Dragoons, governor of Fort William in North Britain, one of the commons in parliament and commander com-mander of an army and fleet employed on an expedition from Canada !' My friends, such is the pride that goeth before a fall. We are an humble, hardworking hard-working people. No man among us can boast of a name so lavishly adorned. Our names need only the simple but glorious adornments of firmness, courage and devotion. With those, I verily believe, we shall have an ally greater than any this world can offer. Let us all kneel where we stand while Rev. Mr. Munro leads us in prayer to Almighty God for His help and guidance." ' It was an impressive hour and that day the same kind of talk was heard in many places. The church led the people. Pulpiteers of inspired vision of which, those days, there were many spoke with the tongues of men and of angels. A sublime faith in "The Great Ally" began to travel up and down the land. CHAPTER XX The Ambush. Mrs. Scott and her little son were made welcome in the home of John Irons. Jack and Solomon were immediately imme-diately sent up the river and through the bush to help the force at Ti. In the middle and late days of July, they reported to runners the southward progress of the Britisli. They were ahead of Herkimer's regiment of New York militia on August 3 wdien they discovered the ambush a misfortune for which they were in no way re ft"" CAMPING NOW AND IfTI'M - THEN IN iPPS M DESER.TEO Pg FARM-HOUSES. VU'ffl'- sponsible. Herkimer and his force had gone on without them 'o relieve Fort Schuyler. The two scouts bad ridden post to join him. They were afoot half a mile or so ahead of the commander com-mander when Jack heard the call of the swamp robin, lie hurried toward his friend. Solomon, was in a ihk-ket of tamaracks. "We got to git hack quick." said the latter. "I see sign o' an ambush." They hurried to their command and warned the general. He balled and faced his men about anil began a retreat. re-treat. Jack and Solomon hurried out ahead of thorn some '20 rods apart. In live minutes Jack beard Solomon's call again. Thoroughly alarmed, he ran in the direction of the sound. In a moment he met Solomon. The face of the latter had that stern look which came only in a crisis. Deep furrows ran across bis brow. His hands were shut tight. There was an expression of anger In his eyes. He swallowed as Jack came near. "It's an ambush sure as hell's ahead," be whispered. As they were hurrying toward the regiment, be added : "We got to light an' ag'in big odds-British odds-British an' Injuns. Don't never let yerself be took alive, my son. lessen ye want to die as Scott did. But. mehbe, we kin bu'st the circle." In half a moment they met Herkimer. "Git ready to fight," said Solomon. "We're surrounded." The men were spread out in a half-circle half-circle and some hurried orders given, hut before they could take a step forward for-ward the trap was sprung. "The Red Devils of Brant" were rushing at them through the timber with yells that seemed to shake the treetops. The regiment tired and began to advance. Some Indians had fallen as tl.ey fired. General Herkimer and others wo--e wounded by a volley from the savages. ! Come on. men. Foller me an' use , yer bayonets," Solomon shouted. "We'll cut our way out." Tire Indians ahead had no time to load. Scores of them were run through. Others fled for their lives. But a red host was swarming up from behind and firing into the regiment. Many fell. Many made the mistake of turning to fight back and were overwhelmed over-whelmed and killed or captured. A goodly number had cut their way through with Jack and Solomon and kept going, swapping cover as they went. Most of them were wounded in some degree. Jack's right shoulder had been torn by a bullet. Solomon's left hand was broken and bleeding. The savages were almost on their heels, not 200 yards behind. The old scout rallied his followers in a thicket at the top of a knoll with an open grass meadow between them and their enemies. There they reloaded their rifles and stood waiting. "Don't lire not none o' ye till I give the word. Jack, you take my rille. I'm goin' to throw this 'ere bunch o' ligbtnin'." Solomon stepped out of the thicket and showed himself when the savages entered the meadow. Then he limped up the trail as if he wera badly hurt, in the fashion of a hen partridge when one lias come near her brood. In a moment he had dodged behind cover and crept back into the thicket. There were about 200 warriors who came running across the flat toward that point where Solomon had disappeared. disap-peared. They yelled like demons and overran the little meadow with astonishing aston-ishing speed. "Now hold yer fire hold yer fire till I give ye the word, er we'll all be et up. Keep yer fingers off the triggers now." He sprang into the open. Astonished, Aston-ished, the foremost runners halted while others crowded upon them. The "bunch of lightning" began its curved flight as Solomon leaped behind a tree and shouted, "Fire !" " 'Tain't too much to say that the cover flew off o' h 1 right tbar at the edge o' the Bloody Medder that min-nit min-nit you hear to me,"- he used to tell his friends. "The air were full o' bu'sted Injun an' a barrel o' blood an' grease went down into the ground. A dozen er so that wasn't hurt run back ercrost the medder like the devil were chasin' 'em all with a red-hot iron. I reckon it'll alius be called the Bloody Medder." In this retreat Jack had lost so much blood that he had to be carried on a litter. Before night fell they met Gen. Benedict Arnold and a considerable force. After a little rest the tireless Solomon went back into the bush with Arnold and two regiments to find the wounded Herkimer, if possible, and others who might be in need of relief. They met a band of refugees coming in with the body of the general. They reported that the far bush was echoing echo-ing with the shrieks of tortured captives. cap-tives. "Beats all what an amount o' suf-ferin' suf-ferin' it takes to start n new nation," Solomon used to say. Next day Arnold fought bis way to the fort, and many of St. Leger's Rangers and their savage allies were slain or captured or broken into little hands and sent flying tor their lives into the northern bush. So the siege of Fort Schuyler was raised. CHAPTER XXI The Binlcussing of Colonel Burley. Solomon had been hit in the thigh by a rille bullet on his way to the fort. He and Jack and other wounded men were conveyed in boats and litters to the hospital at Albany where Jack remained until the leaves were gone. Solomon recovered more quickly and was with Lincoln's militia under Colonel Col-onel Brown when they joined Johnson's John-son's Rangers at Ticonderoga and cut off the supplies of the British army. Later having got around the lines of .the enemy with this intelligence lie had a part in the lighting on Remus Heights and the Stillwater and saw the defeated de-feated British army under Burgoyne marching eastward in disgrace to be conveyed back to England Jack had recovered and was at home j when Solomon arrived in Albany with j the news. I Solomon spent a part ot the evening ! at play with the Little Cricket and the ! other 'children and when the young ones had gone to bed. went out for a j walk wiili "Mis' Scott" on the river j t'n.r.t. j Mrs. Irons had said of 'lie latter that i she was a mo.-t amiab.e and useful j person. ; "The Little Cricket has won our ; hearts." she added. "We love him e? we love our own." When Jack and Solomon were setting I (,ni in a hired sloop for the Highlands next morning there were tears in the I dark eyes of "Mis' Scott." ' "Ain't she a like!;.- womern?" Solomon Solo-mon asked again when with sails s-iread they had begua to cut the water, j ' (TO BE CONTIXUKD.) 1 i |