ickin' over the traces an'
complainin' that he never got proper credit."

CHAPTER XXII

THE BINKUSSING OF COLONEL BURLEY

Solomon had been hit in the thigh by a rifle bullet on his way to the
fort. He and Jack and other wounded men were conveyed in boats and
litters to the hospital at Albany where Jack remained until the leaves
were gone. Solomon recovered more quickly and was with Lincoln's
militia under Colonel Brown when they joined Johnson's Rangers at
Ticonderoga and cut off the supplies of the British army. Later having
got around the lines of the enemy with this intelligence he had a part
in the fighting on Bemus Heights and the Stillwater and saw the
defeated British army under Burgoyne marching eastward in disgrace to
be conveyed back to England.

Jack had recovered and was at home when Solomon arrived in Albany with
the news.

"Wal, my son, I cocalate they's goin' to be a weddin' in our fam'ly
afore long," said the latter.

"What makes you think so?" Jack inquired.

"'Cause John Burgoyne, High Cockylorum and Cockydoodledo, an' all his
army has been licked an' kicked an' started fer hum an' made to promise
that they won't be sassy no more. I tell ye the war is goin' to end.
They'll see that it won't pay to keep it up."

"But you do not know that Howe has taken Philadelphia," said Jack.
"His army entered it on the twenty-sixth of September. Washington is
in a bad fix. You and I have been ordered to report to him at White
Marsh as soon as possible."

"That ol' King 'ud keep us fightin' fer years if he had his way," said
Solomon. "He don't have to bleed an' groan an' die in the swamps like
them English boys have been doin'. It's too bad but we got to keep
killin' 'em, an' when the bad news reaches the good folks over thar
mebbe the King'll git spoke to proper. We got to keep a-goin'. Fer
the fust time in my life I'm glad to git erway from the big bush. The
Injuns have found us a purty tough bit o' fodder but they's no tellin',
out thar in the wilderness, when a man is goin' to be roasted and
chawed up."

Solomon spent a part of the evening at play with the Little Cricket and
the other children and when the young ones had gone to bed, went out
for a walk with "Mis' Scott" on the river-front.

Mrs. Irons had said of the latter that she was a most amiable and
useful person.

"The Little Cricket has won our hearts," she added. "We love him as we
love our own."

When Jack and Solomo