han he had intended.

"Putnam also made trouble by detaining some of the troops forwarded by
Gates to assist him in carrying out a plan of his own for attacking New
York.

"Governor Clinton then advised Hamilton to issue a peremptory order to
Putnam to set those troops in motion for Whitemarsh where Washington was
encamped. Hamilton did so, and the troops were sent."

"Dear, dear!" sighed Lulu, "what a time poor Washington did have with
Congress being so slow, and officers under him so perverse, wanting
their own way instead of doing their best to help him to carry out his
good and wise plans."

"Yes," her father said, with a slight twinkle of fun in his eye, "but
doesn't my eldest daughter feel something like sympathy with them in
their wish to carry out their own plans without much regard for those of
other people?"

"I--I suppose perhaps I ought to, papa," she replied, blushing and
hanging her head rather shamefacedly; "and yet," she added, lifting it
again and smiling up into his eyes, "I do think if you had been the
commander over me I'd have tried to follow your directions, believing
you knew better than I."

She moved nearer to his side and leaned up lovingly against him as she
spoke.

"Yes, dear child, I feel quite sure of it," he returned, laying his hand
tenderly on her head, then smoothing her hair caressingly as he spoke.

"But you haven't finished about the second attack upon Fort Mifflin,
have you, brother Levis?" queried Walter.

"No, not quite," the captain answered; then went on with his narrative:

"All through the war Washington showed himself wonderfully patient and
hopeful, but it was with intense anxiety he now watched the progress of
the enemy in his designs upon Fort Mifflin, unable as he himself was to
succor its threatened garrison."

"But why couldn't he go and help them with his soldiers, papa?" asked
Grace.

"Because, daughter, if he broke up his camp at Whitemarsh, and moved his
army to the other side of the Schuylkill, he must leave stores and
hospitals for the sick, within reach of the enemy; leave the British
troops in possession of the fords of the river; make it difficult, if
not impossible, for the troops he was expecting from the North to join
him, and perhaps bring on a battle while he was too weak to hope for
victory over such odds as Howe could bring against him.

"So the poor fellows in the fort had to fight it out themselves with no
assistance from outside."