now how badly off the American army was,
and were taking their ease inside their own defenses. The autumn and the
winter slipped by before Washington could make the attempt to drive the
British out of Boston.

At last, by the first of March, some cannon and other supplies arrived in
camp. Many of them had been dragged over the snow from Ticonderoga on
sledges drawn by oxen. This gave Washington his opportunity to strike.

One night, while the cannon of the American army, which was just outside
of Boston, were firing upon the British for the purpose of concealing
Washington's plan, he sent troops to seize and fortify Dorchester Heights,
overlooking Boston on the south.

Next morning when the astonished British commander, Howe, realized what
the Americans had done, he saw clearly that he must drive them from the
Heights or else leave Boston himself. But before he could send a force
across the bay, a violent storm came up and delayed the attack.

In the meantime the Americans had made their earthworks so strong that
Howe decided not to molest them. He remembered too well the Bunker Hill
affair. So with all his army he sailed away to Halifax, leaving behind
much powder and many cannon, which you may be sure the Americans lost no
time in seizing.

Washington believed that after leaving Boston the British would try to
take New York in order to get control of the Hudson River and the middle
colonies. To outwit them his men must get to New York first. This they
did.

[Illustration: Sir William Howe.]

He had not gone far in putting up defenses there when an event of profound
importance took place in Philadelphia. This was the signing of the
Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress. Up to the summer
of 1776, it was for their rights as free-born Englishmen that the
colonists had been fighting. But now that King George was sending
thousands of soldiers to force them to give up these rights, which were as
dear to them as their own lives, they said: "We will cut ourselves off
from England. We will make our own laws; we will levy our own taxes; we
will manage our affairs in our own way. We will declare our independence."

So they appointed a committee, two of whom were Thomas Jefferson and
Benjamin Franklin, to draw up the Declaration of Independence. This was
signed July 4, 1776.

[Illustration: Thomas Jefferson Looking Over the Rough Draught of the
Declaration of Independence.]

It was a great day in Amer