g up my pen till
something happens worth relating."

There being such a lack of diversion at the farm, Sally gladly went to
spend a week with her friend Polly Fishbourn at Whitemarsh, where she
had an opportunity to climb the barren hills and from their tops saw an
extended view of the surrounding country. She says, "The traces of the
Army which encamped on these hills are very visible,--ragged huts,
imitations of chimneys, and many other ruinous objects which plainly
showed that they had been there."

Again back at the farm she had long weeks without any other real
adventures,--a real one where Sally was concerned, being always one with
an officer in the foreground, but when June came again there arrived at
the farm the Virginian captain, Dandridge, who seems to have effectually
displaced Major Stoddard in the fickle little lady's graces, and she
described him in glowing terms to Debby, giving very diverting accounts
of the spicy conversations they had together, for Captain Dandridge was
famous at repartee, and Sally never at a loss for words to answer back.
In fact there is no more charming bit of writing in the journal than the
account of her intimacy with the Captain whom she speaks of as the
"handsomest man in existence."

In one of Sally's conversations with Dandridge, an interesting light is
thrown on the attitude of the Wisters in the struggle for independence.
As Quakers, they professed to be in a neutral position, taking a firm
stand against war, and preferring not to be drawn into discussions on
political questions, which is shown by Sally's account of an evening
when some officers having taken tea in the Wister parlour, she says,
"the conversation turned on politicks, a subject to avoid. I gave Betsey
a hint," she adds; "I rose, she followed, and we went out of the room."
But although theoretically opposed to war, the Wisters, like a majority
of the Quakers, were at heart friends of liberty. There is no doubt that
Sally's sympathy was with the American cause, she was quick to deny
Dandridge's accusation that she was a Tory.

All too soon, Captain Dandridge, like the other officers, rode away from
the farm after a gallant leave-taking, but Sally's thoughts were soon
otherwise engrossed. She wrote, "We have had strange reports about the
British being about to leave Philadelphia. I can't believe it."

And on the following day, "We have heard an astonishing piece of
news--that the English have entirely left