"My hopes are burned to the ground," he said to Doctor Franklin.

"It is a time of sacrifice," the good man answered. "You have the
invincible spirit that looks into the future and gives all it has. You
are America."

"I have been thinking too much of myself," Jack answered. "Now I am
ready to lay down my life in this great cause of ours."

"Boy, I like you," said Mr. Adams. "I have arranged to have you safely
conveyed to New York. There an orderly will meet and conduct you to
our headquarters."

"Thank you, sir," Jack replied. Turning to Doctor Franklin, he added:

"One remark of yours to Lord Howe impressed me. You said that Nature
was our friend and ally. It put me in mind of the fog that helped us
out of Brooklyn and of a little adventure of mine."

Then he told the story of the spider's web.

"I repeat that all Nature is with us," said Franklin. "It was a sense
of injustice in human nature that sent us across the great barrier of
the sea into conditions where only the strong could survive. Here we
have raised up a sturdy people with three thousand miles of water
between them and tyranny. Armies can not cross it and succeed long in
a hostile land. They are too far from home. The expense of
transporting and maintaining them will bleed our enemies until they are
spent. The British King is powerful, but now he has picked a quarrel
with Almighty God, and it will go hard with him."

CHAPTER XVII

WITH THE ARMY AND IN THE BUSH

In January, 1777, Colonel Irons writes to his father from Morristown,
New Jersey, as follows:

"An army is a despotic machine. For that reason chiefly our men do not
like military service. It is hard to induce them to enlist for long
terms. They are released by expiration long before they have been
trained and seasoned for good service. So Washington has found it
difficult to fill his line with men of respectable fighting quality.

"Our great Commander lost his patience on the eve of our leaving New
York. Our troops, posted at Kip's Bay on the East River to defend the
landing, fled in a panic without firing a gun at the approach of Howe's
army. I happened to be in a company of Light Horse with General
Washington, who had gone up to survey the ground. Before his eyes two
brigades of New England troops ran away, leaving us exposed to capture.

"The great Virginian was hot with indignation. He threw his hat to the
ground and exclaimed:

"'Are these the