I shall also be much surprised,"
added Robert Morris.

"Give my regards to his excellency, and wish him a merry Christmas from
me, and tell him that he has our best hopes for success in his new
enterprise. I will detach six hundred men from Philadelphia,
to-morrow, to make a diversion in his behalf," said the general.

"Yes," continued Robert Morris, "and I shall be obliged, Lieutenant
Seymour, if you will call at my house before you start, and get a small
bag of money which I shall give you to hand to General Washington, with
my compliments. Tell him it is all I can raise at present, and that I
am ashamed to send him so pitiable a sum; but if he will call upon me
again, I shall, I trust, do better next time."

Bidding each other adieu, the four gentlemen separated, General Putnam
to arrange for the distribution and forwarding of the supplies to the
troops at once; Robert Morris to send a report to the Congress, which
had retreated to Baltimore upon the approach of Howe and Cornwallis
through the Jerseys; and Seymour and Talbot back to the ship to make
necessary arrangements for their departure.

Seymour shortly afterward turned the command of the Mellish over to the
officer Mr. Morris designated as his successor; and Talbot delivered
his schedule to the officer appointed by General Putnam to receive it.
Refusing the many pressing invitations to stay and dine, or partake of
the other bounteous hospitality of the townspeople, the young men
passed the night quietly with Seymour's aunt, his only relative, and at
four o'clock on Christmas morning, accompanied by Bentley and Talbot,
they set forth upon their long cold ride to Washington's camp,--a ride
which was to extend very much farther, however, and be fraught with
greater consequences than any of them dreamed of, as they set forth
with sad hearts upon their journey.

CHAPTER XX

_A Winter Camp_

About half after one o'clock in the afternoon of Wednesday, December
25th, being Christmas day, and very cold, four tired horsemen, on jaded
steeds, rode up to a plain stone farmhouse standing at the junction of
two common country roads, both of which led to the Delaware River, a
mile or so away. In the clearing back of the house a few wretched
tents indicated a bivouac. Some shivering horses were picketed under a
rude shelter, formed by interlacing branches between the trunks of a
little grove of thickly growing trees which had been left standing as a
wind-b