loaded with barrels of gunpowder made under the direction of
Benjamin Franklin and paid for with his money. A British fleet being
in American waters, the overland route was chosen as the safer one. It
was a slow and toilsome journey with here and there a touch of stern
adventure. Crossing the pine barrens of New Jersey, they were held up
by a band of Tory refugees and deprived of all the money in their
pockets. Always Solomon got a squint in one eye and a solemn look in
the other when that matter was referred to.

"'Twere all due to the freight," he said to a friend. "Ye see their
guns was p'intin' our way and behind us were a ton o' gunpowder. She's
awful particular comp'ny. Makes her nervous to have anybody nigh her
that's bein' shot at. Ye got to be peaceful an' p'lite. Don't let no
argements come up. If some feller wants yer money an' has got a gun
it'll be cheaper to let him have it. I tell ye she's an uppity,
hot-tempered ol' critter--got to be treated jest so er she'll stomp her
foot an' say, 'Scat,' an' then--"

Solomon smiled and gave his right hand a little upward fling and said
no more, having lifted the burden off his mind.

On the post road, beyond Horse Neck in Connecticut, they had a more
serious adventure. They had been traveling with a crude map of each
main road, showing the location of houses in the settled country where,
at night, they could find shelter and hospitality. Owing to the
peculiar character of their freight, the Committee in Philadelphia had
requested them to avoid inns and had caused these maps to be sent to
them at post-offices on the road indicating the homes of trusted
patriots from twenty to thirty miles apart. About six o'clock in the
evening of July twentieth, they reached the home of Israel Lockwood,
three miles above Horse Neck. They had ridden through a storm which
had shaken and smitten the earth with its thunder-bolts some of which
had fallen near them. Mr. Lockwood directed them to leave their wagons
on a large empty barn floor and asked them in to supper.

"If you'll bring suthin' out to us, I guess we better stay by her,"
said Solomon. "She might be nervous."

"Do you have to stay with this stuff all the while?" Lockwood asked.

"Night an' day," said Solomon. "Don't do to let 'er git lonesome.
To-day when the lightnin' were slappin' the ground on both sides o' me,
I wanted to hop down an' run off in the bush a mile er so fer to see
the kentry, but I