Are we worthy to be saved--that is the question. If we
expect God to furnish the flannel and the shoe leather, we are not. That
is our part of the great task. Are we going to shirk it and fail?

"We are making a real army. The men who are able to work are being
carefully trained by the crusty old Baron Steuben and a number of French
officers."

That they did not fail was probably due to the fact that there were men
in the army like this one who seemed to have some little understanding of
the will of God and the duty of man. This letter and others like it,
traveled far and wide and more than a million hands began to work for the
army.

The Schuylkill was on one side of the camp and wooded ridges, protected
by entrenchments, on the other. Trees were felled and log huts
constructed, sixteen by fourteen feet in size. Twelve privates were
quartered in each hut.

The Gates propaganda was again being pushed. Anonymous letters
complaining that Washington was not protecting the people of Pennsylvania
and New Jersey from depredations were appearing in sundry newspapers. By
and by a committee of investigation arrived from Congress. They left
satisfied that Washington had done well to keep his army alive, and that
he must have help or a large part of it would die of cold and hunger.

2

It was on a severe day in March that Washington sent for Jack Irons. The
scout found the General sitting alone by the fireside in his office which
was part of a small farm-house. He was eating a cold luncheon of baked
beans and bread without butter. Jack had just returned from Philadelphia
where he had risked his life as a spy, of which adventure no details are
recorded save the one given in the brief talk which follows. The scout
smiled as he took the chair offered.

"The British are eating no such frugal fare," he remarked.

"I suppose not," the General answered.

"The night before I left Philadelphia Howe and his staff had a banquet at
The Three Mariners. There were roasted hams and geese and turkeys and
patties and pies and jellies and many kinds of wine and high merriment.
The British army is well fed and clothed."

"We are not so provided but we must be patient," said Washington. "Our
people mean well, they are as yet unorganized. This matter of being
citizens of an independent nation at war is new to them. The men who are
trying to establish a government while they are defending it against a
powerful enemy