hird time. Then the shrewd woman
affected to awake, answered in a sleepy tone, and, learning
that the adjutant-general and his friends were ready to
leave, arose and saw them out.

[Illustration: THE OLD STATE HOUSE, PHILADELPHIA.]

Lydia Darrah slept no more that night. The secret she had
learned banished slumber. What was to be done? This thought
filled her mind the night long. Washington must be warned;
but how? Should she trust her husband, or some other member
of her family? No, they were all leaky vessels; she would
trust herself alone. Before morning she had devised a plan
of action, and for the first time since learning that
eventful news the anxious woman gave her mind a moment's
rest.

At early dawn she was astir. Flour was needed for the
household. She woke her husband and told him of this, saying
that she must make an early journey to Frankford to supply
the needed stores. This was a matter of ordinary occurrence
in those days, the people of Philadelphia being largely
dependent upon the Frankford mills for their flour, and
being obliged to go for it themselves. The idea of
house-to-house delivery had not yet been born. Mr. Darrah
advised that she should take the maid with her, but she
declined. The maid could not be spared from her household
duties, she said.

It was a cold December morning. The snow of the day before
had left several inches of its white covering upon the
ground. It was no very pleasant journey which lay before
Mrs. Darrah. Frankford was some five miles away, and she was
obliged to traverse this distance afoot, and return over the
same route with her load of flour. Certainly comfort was not
the ruling consideration in those days of our forefathers. A
ten-mile walk through the snow for a bag of flour would be
an unmentionable hardship to a nineteenth-century housewife.

On foot, and bag in hand, Mrs. Darrah started on her journey
through the almost untrodden snow, stopping at General
Howe's head-quarters, on Market Street near Sixth, to obtain
the requisite passport to leave the city. It was still early
in the day when the devoted woman reached the mills. The
British outposts did not extend to this point; those of the
Americans were not far beyond. Leaving her bag at the mill
to be filled, Mrs. Darrah, full of her vital mission, pushed
on through the wintry air, ready to incur any danger or
discomfort if thereby she could convey to the patriot army
the important information which