s on this trip, as Major Rogers was
at Albany, and Edmund's duties as adjutant kept him in camp.

CHAPTER XIV

A SCOUTING EXPEDITION IN THE DEAD OF WINTER

One day about the end of February, Edmund came out of Rogers's hut, and
said:--

"Rogers is going on a scout, boys, down to Ticonderoga, and will take
your company. Johnson is going to send over fifty Mohawk Indians under
Captain Lotridge, and there'll be a number of regulars, too. There will
be about three hundred and fifty men in the party, so that there won't
be much chance of your being treated as we were in our first expedition.
An engineer lieutenant named Bhreems is going with you, and will make
sketches of the fort. You are to try and take some prisoners to bring
back information."

We set out on the third of March, 1759.

The snow was deep, and the Rangers and Indians were on snowshoes. The
regulars followed us, plodding along heavily through the snow. We
reached Halfway Brook that night, and the next day got over to Lake
George. We waited till it was dark and then marched down the lake to the
First Narrows, which we reached about two in the morning.

It was bitter cold, and already some of the men were so badly
frost-bitten that twenty of them had been sent back to Fort Edward.

"Now, boys," said Rogers, "we must keep under cover all day and hide
till night comes on. You can't have any fires. Get into sheltered spots
and huddle together to keep warm, and shift round now and then to give
every one a fair chance."

We huddled together like sheep and covered ourselves with our blankets.
Occasionally we rose, stamped our feet and beat our hands, and then
crouched down again.

When it was dark we put on our rackets and set out again. By daybreak we
reached the landing-place. Rogers sent scouts to see if any of the enemy
were out. They reported that there were two parties of them cutting
wood on the east side of Lake Champlain.

[Sidenote: FRENCH WOODCUTTERS]

Rogers now marched with fifty Rangers and as many Indians down to the
isthmus, and we went up the same hill from which John Stark and Engineer
Clark made their observations the year before. Everything looked
different in the winter. We were acting as a guard to Mr. Bhreems, who
went up to the crest of the hill and made sketches of the fort. Amos and
I crept along the sidehill to where a few Indians and Rangers were
watching some Frenchmen at work on the other side of the lake. They we