The Young Continentals at Monmouth
9781465668035
213 pages
Library of Alexandria
Overview
“Do you know what to-morrow will be, Ben Cooper?” The speaker was a dwarfish looking lad whose big head and upstanding crest of hair gave him a most curious appearance. “To-morrow,” replied the second boy, promptly, “will be New Year’s day.” The dwarf shifted his leather belt so that his huge service pistol might hang more comfortably; and his voice, when he spoke again, contained a note of complaint. “It will be that, to be sure; but it will also be just one week since Washington crossed the Delaware and beat the Hessians.” The eyes of the other boy sparkled. “Ah, that was the night,” he cried. “There, indeed, was sport, excitement and glory.” The dwarf shook his large head. “For you and for Nat and the others,” protested he. “But not for me. While you were all having your fill of fighting, I was away in Philadelphia, riding here and there, at the beck and call of a parcel of excited committeemen.” Ben Cooper’s good-natured face was all a-wrinkle with smiles. “Don’t worry, Porcupine,” he said. “The war is not over as yet, by a good deal. They say Cornwallis is on his way across the Jerseys, and as he’s the best fighter the British have, we may expect plenty of warm work still.” It was late in the afternoon; the pale wintry sun was dipping slowly toward the cluster of peaked roofs which marked the location of Philadelphia; the snow-packed road with its topping of ice went stretching ahead like a gleaming serpent. “We will reach there before sundown,” said Ben, his eye upon the housetops as though marking the sun’s position. “And I trust that we find Mr. Morris at home, for I fancy that the general’s dispatches are somewhat urgent.” “The general’s dispatches to Mr. Robert Morris are always urgent,” said the Porcupine. “I have carried more than one of them, and I know. And I have carried them for other officers and gentlemen in and out of the army.”
