would not of hers, for she had not erred. But she knew that all the English, and, worst of all, the Yankees, were heretics and unbelievers, and if they did not repent would be punished more fearfully than the Indians could possibly punish them.

As they walked slowly in the fog and night along the narrow path back toward the village until they came to the gap in the fence which marked the entrance into the main road, he held his arm around her slender waist, but when this point was reached, where a careless step might deposit one or both of them in the seaweed beside the crabs and eels, he felt it necessary to support her more firmly. Then, after a pause of expressive silence, after he was sure that she would not, in words at least, relent from her decision, he began to say a good-bye which they both felt might be forever, but she clung so closely to him that he turned and walked as slowly back to Trawhaw's rude but kindly shelter. Again he tried, and their lips met in impassioned kisses until an uncertain step not far away in the road told them that it must come to an end.

"It's some of those boys from Cohasset," said he. "They want to be here early enough for the start to-morrow morning. These are the last, Adele."

As it happened, the two young men met again at the bridge. "I congratulate you," said Lincoln, as he recognized the slow and despondent footfall of the lieutenant through the mist.

"You need not," said he. "There is nothing to congratulate me upon."

"I am glad she did not encourage you to ruin yourself," said the other. "That is what I say it for."

"Well, you need not hurry on that ground, for although I am discouraged I have not given up hope, and perhaps I Ishall have better luck when we come back in the fall."

The lieutenant was too deeply engrossed in his own thoughts to give attention to such trifles as the moods of his friend. If he had, he might have guessed that his suit with

the fair and sprightly Debby had fared no better than his own. She had indeed received him with pleasure and been as entertaining and captivating as possible, but whenever he inclined to become sentimental she became obtuse and could not understand his tender allusions. He was headed off in whatever direction he tried to go, and was obliged to take his departure without the slightest opportunity to obtain any expression of special regard except the little sewing case which she had already given him, the like of which she expressed her perfect willingness to make for any patriotic young soldier who would accept it as a tribute to his merits.

CHAPTER IV

MARCH FROM HINGHAM TO ALBANY

MICHAEL WHALEN's drum awoke the echoes in the little village on the pleasant May morning as the company which had united in worship the day before gathered again before the old church for their long march. Now they had their knapsacks and blankets, as well as their guns and hatchets. They were joined by a few more men from the neighboring towns who had been spending as long a time as they could with their families and now hurried to the colors. baggage wagons, each with its two yoke of oxen, whose chance of returning alive was much less even than that of the men, had started several hours before to carry baggage and extra ammunition, but there was enough left for every man to be heavily weighted as he could bear.

Two

Eleven days was the time allowed from Albany to Boston, but that was for men returning with but little baggage and after they had left the Hoosac mountains, with more down hill than up, which makes a difference when one carries thirty pounds or more on his back-to say nothing of its being toward home. A courier of course did it in some days less time, according to the road and the horse.

There was not much parade in the village this morning. The enthusiasm had been spent the day before. There were only a few boys whose curiosity was never satiated and whose martial ardor did not wear out, with a few older men whose sons, brothers and friends were in the ranks. The men fell in quietly, conversing in low tones or making signs of recognition to their acquaintances. Soon they started up the

street in good order, for the captain and the lieutenants had been drilling them carefully. Stout Ensign Lincoln strode proudly at the head of the first platoon, which he was to relinquish after a few miles, when they were to be joined by Solomon Lovell at Weymouth. Next came the more slender and graceful figure of Bates, with the second.

Mrs. Baxter had taken her leave. No one had heard her regret nor seen her outwardly moved or with a tear in her eyes, but she had taken excellent care that her husband had a good cup of coffee to his substantial early breakfast and that a good midday meal was secure in his haversack. This was as far as she could carry him. She turned resolutely away from the window and gave her whole attention to the baking in the great brick oven, while the brisk quickstep of the drum and the shrill whistle of Zebedee Stodder's fife drew nearer and nearer to her door, to die away again as the company passed over Fort Hill at the end of the meadow on the road for Back River.

Her sister, however, had stood at the front gate as the company wheeled to the left after crossing the bridgeBroad, so called, although barely permitting two carriages to pass each other thereon-and waved her handkerchief enthusiastically toward the sturdy, blushing ensign making a heroic but vain effort to keep his eyes in front, while for Bates she lingered only long enough to give him a very cold and distant salute, then ran at once to her own room. She hoped her sobs were unheard, but they were not unsuspected by her sister.

That afternoon, at nearly sunset, the company encamped with their baggage wagons, which they had caught up with, on a plain near the Neponset River, almost under the shadow of the Great Blue Hill, so that the next morning in good season Captain Baxter was able to report at Dedham with his full company for muster into the regiment nominally commanded by Colonel Richard Gridley. But it would be many days before they saw that excellent officer, for he was already somewhere among the carrying places

and the forest on the upper Hudson, getting the artillery to the front and properly mounted as best he could.

The next night found them at Sherburn, the next at Westboro, where they encamped near the house of one Bezaleel Eager, one of the regular billeting places for the men passing in either direction on horse or foot. The invalided soldier used to get sixpence for a meal and eightpence for taking care of a horse for the night. By this time many of the men had lame feet. They had done no marching for many months, and their shoes were new, so that when the roads were not too rough they went barefoot. They were very glad when the major allowed them a day's rest to get ready for a longer march.

Mr. Eager, of course, was in the way of getting all the gossip of the western camps, as well as that which came by sea from the eastward. The men remarked quietly to each other that his attitude toward the campaign upon which they were just entering-which views, being no longer an officer or an enlisted man, he felt under no necessity for stating any too carefully-by no means justified his name. He said the Colonies could not hope for success so long as they kept up their jealousies with each other, so long as each was afraid it would be called upon to do more than its share of the fighting and paying for it, and was always anxious lest it should get less than its share of the higher offices. None of the provincials, high or low, liked the haughty way in which they were treated by the regular British officers. Mr. Eager said he hoped these new generals who were coming over, and the Scotch lord with his Highlanders, might be different, but he shook his head doubtfully and groaned that he feared it would be no improvement. "It was in the breed and the raising. What can you expect when people are all agreed that the Lord takes two different kinds of clay to make men of, and it's the business of one kind to work or get killed for the other, while they amuse themselves, and have no serious occupation beside either being or playing soldiers?