r. We must not be too severe."

Jack heard the Commander-in-Chief when he spoke these words.

"The man has a great heart in him, as every great man must," he wrote
to his father. "I am beginning to love him. I can see that these
thousands in the army are going to be bound to him by an affection like
that of a son for a father. With men like Washington and Franklin to
lead us, how can we fail?"

The next night Sir Henry Clinton got around the Americans and turned
their left flank. Smallwood's command and that of Colonel Jack Irons
were almost destroyed, twenty-two hundred having been killed or taken.
Jack had his left arm shot through and escaped only by the swift and
effective use of his pistols and hanger, and by good luck, his horse
having been "only slightly cut in the withers." The American line gave
way. Its unseasoned troops fled into Brooklyn. There was the end of
the island. They could go no farther without swimming. With a British
fleet in the harbor under Admiral Lord Howe, the situation was
desperate. Sir Henry had only to follow and pen them in and unlimber
his guns. The surrender of more than half of Washington's army would
have to follow. At headquarters, the most discerning minds saw that
only a miracle could prevent it.

The miracle arrived. Next day a fog thicker than the darkness of a
clouded night enveloped the island and lay upon the face of the waters.
Calmly, quickly Washington got ready to move his troops. That night,
under the friendly cover of the fog, they were quietly taken across the
East River, with a regiment of Marblehead sea dogs, under Colonel
Glover, manning the boats. Fortunately, the British army had halted,
waiting for clear weather.

3

For nearly two weeks Jack was nursing his wound in Washington's army
hospital, which consisted of a cabin, a tent, a number of cow stables
and an old shed on the heights of Harlem. Jack had lain in a stable.

Toward the end of his confinement, John Adams came to see him.

"Were you badly hurt ?" the great man asked.

"Scratched a little, but I'll be back in the service to-morrow," Jack
replied.

"You do not look like yourself quite. I think that I will ask the
Commander-in-Chief to let you go with me to Philadelphia. I have some
business there and later Franklin and I are going to Staten Island to
confer with Admiral Lord Howe. We are a pair of snappish old dogs and
need a young man like you to look after us. You