The life ...

Front matter

THE LIFE

OP

NATHANIEL GREENE,

Chapter I

I»troductory. — Famfly of Greene. — Hia Early Education. — Occupation. — Studies. — Intimacies. — Resolution and Strength of Character • paor t

CHAPTER n.

Youthful Habits. — Parental Discipline. — Progress from Books to Politics. — Military Studies and Marriage 20

CHAPTER HI.

Bvttle of Lexington. — Rhode Island Army of Observation. — Greene its General. — Is made a Brigadier in the Continental Service. — Commands on Long Island. — Raised to the Rank of Major-General. — Fort Lee. — Fort Washington. — Retreat through New Jersey. — Battles of Trenton and Princeton 30

CHAPTER IV.

Thft Army in Winter Quarters. — Greene sent on a Mission to Congress, — Explores the Highlands. — Manoeuvres of the British. — Greene in Command of a Division. — Conspicuous in the Battle of Braudywine — and in that of Germantown. — Sent against Comw^allis. — Retires with the Army upon Valley Forge 45

CHAPTER V.

Greene becomes Quartermaster-General. — The British evacuate Philadelphia. — Pursued by Washington. — The Battle of Monmouth. — The Conduct of Greene in that Battle. — Joins Sullivan in an Attempt on Newport — Engiges the British. — Retires before them on the Approach of Clinton -• >M

CHAPTER VL

Greene defends Sullivan for the Afiair in Rhode Island. — Difficnlties with Congress in regard to the Duties of Quartermaster-GeneraL — Anecdote of his Brother. — Resigns from his Office, and offends Congress. — Debates in that Body. — Greene oommajids at the Battle of Springfield 7P

CONTENJ S.

CHAPTER VII.

Deuion8trations on New York. — Treason of Arnold. — Greene appointed to the Post at West Point.— Gates's Defeat. — Greene succeeds him in Command of the Southern Army. — Proceeds to the South. — Joins the Army at Charlotte, N. C. — Treatment of Gates - - - 97

CHAPTER VIII.

Glimpse of the past Progress of the War in the South. — Condition of the Country and of the Army when Greene takes Command. — His Difficulties — Resources — Policy. — Moves from Charlotte to Pee Dee. — Marion's Movements. — Cornwallis. — Morgan. — Tarleton pursues Morgan. — Is defeated at the Cowpens 110

CHAPTER IX.

Morgan's Retreat before Cornwallis. — Greene joins him on the Catawba. — Condition of the American Army. — Militia collects under Davidson. — British pas.s the Catawba. — Death of Davidson. — Morgan Retreats. — Passes the Yadkin. — Skirmish with the Rearguard. — Anecdote of Greene 132

CHAPTER X.

■Continued Pursuit of the Americans by Cornwallis. — Greene meditates a Stand at Guilford. — Condition of his Army. — Continues the Retreat through North Carolina. — Deludes Cornwallis, who pursues a Detachment under Williams, while the main Army of the Americans crosses the River Dan in security 144

CHAPTER XL

I'^e Armies watch each other. — The Militia collect under Pickens and Caswell. — Cornwallis retires upon Hillsborough. — Greene recrosses the Dan. — Pickens and Lee operate successfully upon the British Detachments.— Sanguinary Defeat of Loyalists under Pyles, and Pursuit of Tarleton Ifil

CHAPTER XIL

Strategies of the two Armies. — Cornwallis surrounded by the Partisans. —Their Activity and Audacity.— He attempts to elude them, and cut Greene oflF from his Detachments. — He pursues Williams, who escapes him. — Cornwallis retires, and Greene prepares for Action • 173

CHAPTER XIIL

The Battle of Guilford.— Its Vicissitudes.— Duel between Colonel Stuart and Captain Smith.— Slaughter among the Guards.— Retreat of the Americans ... 183

CONTENTS. 7

CHAPTER XIV.

Comwallis Retreats — Is pursued by Greene — Escapes. — His Condition, and that of the Americans. — Greene's Policy. — Discontinues the Pursuit of Comwallis — Marches to South Carolina — Appears before Camden — and offers Battle to Lord Raw don 199

CHAPTER XV.

Comwallis pursues his Route to Virginia. — The Partisan Warfare in Carolina. — Marion. — Captures Fort Watson. — Greene's Movements. — Raw don marches out from Camden and gives him Battle. —

Battle of Hobkirk's Hill 213

CHAPTER XVI.

Rawdon attempts the Camp of Greene. — Evacuates and destroys Camden. — Capture of Fort Motte and other Posts by the Partisans. — Rawdon at Monk's Corner. — Marion takes Georgetown — Pickens Augusta. — Greene besieges Ninety-Six — Attempts to storm it, and is

defeated with Loss 225

CHAPTER XVn.

Greene retreats from Ninety-Six. — Is pursued by Rawdon. — The latter evacuates Ninety-Six, and retires toward the Seaboard. — Greene turns upon and pursues him. — Various Movements of the Armies. — Rawdon at Orangeburg. — Greene offers him Battle. — He declines it •—Is strengthened by Cruger, and Greene retires and encamps among the High Hills- of Sautee 243

CHAPTER XVIIL Incursion of the Partisans under Sumter into the Lower Country. — Capture of Dorchester. — Alarm in Charleston. — Attempt on the Post at Biggins. — Abandoned by the British. — Pursuit of Coates. — Affair at auinby Bridge.— Battle at Shubrick's 2£8

CHAPTER XIX.

The Campof the Hills.— Greene's Army and his Labor.— The Capture and Execution of General Hayne. — Excitement of Greene and the Camp. — Retaliation threatened. — Stuart in Command of the British Army.— Successes of American Cavalry. — Greene's Army in Motion. —Retreat of Stuart.— Takes Post at Eutaw.— Greene approaches - 269

CHAPTER XX.

Battle of Eutaw Springs 288

CHAPTER XXL The American Army retires to the Hills of the Santee.— Its Condition and that of the British. — The Movements of the Partisans. — Stuart at Wantoot— The Fall of Comwallis.— The Hopes it inspired.— Their Disappointment. — Greene marches for the Edisto. — Rapid Approach to Dorchester. — Flight of the Garrison.— Stuart Retreats. — Alarm in the British Army. — The Americans take Post on the Round O. - '^fi^

8 CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XXII.

American Attempt on the British Post at John's Island. — Its Failure. — Second Attempt. — Withdrawal of the Garrison. — The Legislature assembles at Jacksonborough. — Its Character. — Governor Rutledge. — His Speech. — Compliments Greene. — Address of the Senate and House of Representatives to Greene. — The latter Body votes him Ten Thousand Guineas. — Liberality of Georgia and North Carolina - 313

CHAPTER XXIIl.

The State of the Army. — Wayne's Victories in Georgia. — Discontents among the Troops of Greene. — Treachery of Soldiers of the Pennsylvania Line. — Their Detection and Punishment. — Continued Distress and Sickness of the Army. — Movements of the British. — Marion defeats Fraser. — Affair on the Combahee. — Death of Laurens. — Pickens ponisbes the Tories and the Indians • - • • 32S

CHAPTER XXIV.

Greene's Necessities. — He resorts to Impressment. — The British prepare to evacuate Charleston. — That Event lakes place on the 14th of December, 1782. — The American Army enter the City. — Their Reception. — The Joy of the Inhabitants. — Condition of Public Affairs in Carolina. — Discontents and Difficulties. — Sufferings of the Army. — Mutiny. — Army Disbanded. — Greene revisits the North. — His Reception by Congress. — His Monetary Difficulties. — Greene returns to Carolina - - - - 337

CHAPTER XXV.

His Removal to Georgia. — Challenged by Captain Gunn. — He declines the Challenge. — The Extent, Prospect, Peace, and Beauty of his Domains. — His Sickness and Death. — Public Sorrow and Honors on this Event. — His Character. — Conclusion 351

Appendix

Southern Army. — A Narative of the Campaign of 1780, by Colonel Otho Holland Williams, Adjutant-General 359

A Narrative of Events relative to the Southern Army subsequent to the Arrival of General Gate's broken Battalions at Hillsborough, 1760 - 383

LIFE

OP

NATHANAEL GREENE.

CHAPTER I.

Introductory. — Family of Greene. — His Early Education. — Occupation.— Studies. — Intimacies. — Resolution and Strength of Character.

The events which brought about the separation of the American colonies of Great Britain from the mother-country, have, somewhat improperly, we think, gone under the general name of revolution. We should prefer to substitute for this word, that o^ transition, as denotinsT a natural progress in history, rather than such an extreme and violent change as is implied by the term in most familiar use. To the thoughtful and philosophic mind there was nothing extreme or improbable — nothing which the political seer might not readily have foreseen — in the progress of opinion and necessity, in America, to that final action which severed the ungenial lig'aments, which, from ties had grown into bonds, by which the colonies were united to the mother-country. Their gi'owth and population, the gradually unfolding resources of their territories, the embarrassments which attended their po litical intercourse with Great Britain, the pecuniary ex^ actions ®f the parent empire, and, ahove all, the humiliar

10 LIFE OF NATllANAEL GREENE.

ting character of the relation in which they stood to a country which claimed to govern them from abroad, and by those who were not indigenous to the soil — subjecting the native mind to a denial at once degrading to its character, and ruino is to the national interests — were sufficient reasons by which the separation could have been and was foreshown. The emancipation of the Americans from foreign rule, was the natural consequence of increasing numbers, and enlarged intelHgence. The infant had grown into manhood. It was capable of going alone ; and the impulse which sundered the leading-strings by which its movements were confined, was the fruit of a simple progi'ess, step by step upward, to the possession and the exercise of a natural and inevitable strength. It was the great good fortune of the Americans that such was the case in their history — that there was no abrupt or premature outbreak which would have found them too weak for a struggle, which, under such a circumstance, would only have served to rivet their bands more firmly, and prolong the term of their endurance. This must have been the event had their history been that of a revolution — a change rather than a progress. But the progress found them prepared with all the necessary resources. Their numbers were not inadequate to the struggle ; the intelligence of the people made the necessity for it a familiar and expanding thought ; and, when, in course of time, they could evolve from their own ranks, statesmen and warriors who were capable of their government as an independent nation, it was permitted, as in the case of the Israelites — when they could boast of prophets, like Moses and Aaron, equal to any of the Egyptian magi — that they should be conducted out of bondage. Wlien Virginia could produce such great men as Washington, Patrick Henry, and Jefferson ; Massachusetts, Hancock and Adams ; and

THE FAMILY OF GREENE. 11

Carolina, lier Marions, Moultries, and Rutledges — there was surely no proper necessity to look to a foreign country for the sage or soldier. It is the curious and conclusive fact in our history, at the beginning of the struggle for independence, that it found all the colonies in possession of some one or more remarkably endowed persons to whom the conduct of their affairs in council, and of their honor in th& field, might be confided safely. Among the men thus constituting the mcial stock of character with which the great national movement was begun, it is the boast of Rhode Island to have made one of the most valuable contributions, in the person of Nathanael Greene.

The family of Greene was English. It left the old for the new world somewhere in the seventeenth century, one branch of the family settling at Plymouth, whence it subsequently removed to Providence river; while the other established itself in the township of Warwick, upon lands procured from the Narraganset Indians. Here, upon the banks of the stream which still bears the aboriginal name of Potowhommett, Nathanael Greene, the third in descent from John, the original settler, built himself a mill and forge. The occupation of the blacksmith seems to have been in no wise detrimental to the social position of the family. They were among the first European settlers of the countiy; their career was marked by usefulness, and was not without its distinctions. John Greene, the founder of the family, was one of the colonists who appeared in the first permanent organization of the province under the charter of Charles the Second, and others of its members rose to offices of dignity and trust in the administration of the affairs of the colony. In new settlements, which suffer from a thousand influences of which a high condition of civilization affords no just idea, the distinguishing merit of the citizen must necessarily be his usefulness. He who, in such a condition of society, is prepared to meet and to overcome even its meanest necessities, is a benefactor, and in just degree with the importance of his sei-vice will be his social distinctions. Nathanael Greene, the sire, suflered accordingly no diminution qf rank when he graced his arms with a sledge-hammer ; and it is one of the honorable distinctions, in the descendant whose career is the subject of this volume, that he was duly taught to wield it also.

The region in which this sway was maintained, on the waters of the Potowhommett, is still designated by filial pride, in connexion with this history; and the ancient mill itself, and the rude forge at which, father and son, the Greenes toiled, year by year, with praiseworthy perseverance, are still subjects of equal admiration and interest to all who delight in the upward rise of an ambition that founds its hopes entirely upon a compliance with the demands of duty. Here, too, stood the humble house of stone, a single story, in which Nathanael Greene, the subject of our memoir — the second of six sons by a second marriage — was born on the 27th of May, 1742. He was the fourth of eight sons whom the father raised to manhood. Of his infancy we know nothing. It was probably a somewhat cheerless one. His mother died when he was yet a child ; and his father, as we may imagine, was something of a Spartan, in the guise of a quaker preachei. This venerable man is represented as filling the pulpit with rare ability ; preaching with a force and eloquence, a simplicity and shrewdness, which continued to edify the meeting-house at East Greenwich for nearly forty years. The functions of a pastor, however earnestly orosecuted, found him in no degi-ee forgetful of, or indifferent to, the domestic stewardship. His boys followed him at the forge and at the farm, and accompanied him niS YOUTHFUL CIIARA TERISTICS.

to tho place of prayer, with the most unvarying regularity. He was a rigid disciplinarian — an authority that never once suffered itself to be disputed, without testing the strength of the offender by the certainty of the punishment. Temperate and frugal himself, the training to which he subjected his boys — a training which was rather strict and rigid than severe — naturally produced similar habits among them ; and they passed, by a natural progress, as they acquired strength for these several employments, through all the labors of the mill, the forge, and the farm, until they grew into athletic young men, healthy and vigorous of person, and calm and resolute of mind. In one respect, the education which Greene afforded to his sons was perhaps deficient. His own lessons had been simply religious. Of books, he knew none but the Bible, and regarded the sacred volume as superseding the necessity for every other. The humble elements of an English country-school, the lessons of which were sought only during the short, bleak days of winter, were not materially calculated to modify the effects of this education, which accordingly impressed itself upon the whole character and career of the subject of our memoir, in a manner which could not be mistaken. Hence the simplicity of his habits, the equable tone of his mind, his straightforwardness and integi'ity, the style in which he wrote, and the inflexibility of his pui-pose. These characteristics, however decidedly his own, were not entirely at variance with a mood which was gentle in its nature, and a disposition to society and its pleasantries. Young G-reene was not indifferent to the sports of youth. The strictness of his training, in all probability increased their attractions in his eyes ; and good limbs and an athletic constitution enabled him to excel in the usual amusements of a rustic life. He was chief ntnong the actors in all rural sports ; a leader among the revellers in all the wholesome and hearty enjoyments of the country; and quite an authority, at an early period, among his youthful associates, — proving clearly certain peculiar endowments in himself, which, by tacit consent, were admitted to have sway among their councils. Rustic superstition contributed to confirm, this authority. His nativity was cast by a Doctor Spencer, who united the kindred professions of accouche:ir and astrologer ; and he predicted the future distinctions, disguised as usual in a happy generality, to which our hero was to attain. He was to be a mighty man in Israel.

The prediction promised to be verified. The deference which his young associates paid to his genius, extended to his stern and exemplary father. He was observed to yield to his wishes and opinions an attention which no other of the family could obtain. The natural ascendency of mind was felt in spite of the deficiencies of education. These deficiencies were of the extremesr kind, and continued until our subject was fourteen years It was then that he formed an intimacy with a lad named Giles, a student of the university of Rhode Island, who spent his vacation at East Greenwich. This boy, who was probably only a clever sophomore, awakened in the mind of young Greene all its latent ambition. He made him a discontent, by showing him that there were other lessons which wisdom might teach, of importance to the career of man, beyond those, however valuable in themselves and vital, which took care of his spiritual interests. It was from this moment — and from the lesson so caught up — that Greene began to direct his attention to the acquisition of books. The shelves of his friends were ransacked with the view to the satiation of this newly-aroused appetite. The labors of his hands were voluntarily increased, that he might procure means to purchase the precious volumes which he could not other-

HIS STUDIES ENLARGED. 15

wise obtain. His usual sports were foregone ; the pleasures and toys of the child beguiled and satisfied him no longer ; he was no more a boy, but a student, appropriating every moment of leisure — nay, without waiting for the moment of leisure — but beside the anchor forge» or the hopper of the mil], wherever the occupation would permit of the indulgence, he sat or stood, book in hand, dividing his time jealously between the toils of necessity and the object of the passionate desires of his mind.

This habit was not grateful to his father. He regarded it as a form of idleness, and perhaps, in some sort, as a profanity. Why should he want other books than the Bible'? That had been enough for M?n; and the self-esteem which made so large an element in the father's character, naturally resented the enlarged appetites of the son, as so much presumption. Bat, as the boy conscientiously fulfilled all his duties — as neither indolence nor neglect of his tasks, nor slovenliness in their performance, could be charged upon him — the sire did not attempt to prevent him in the pursuit of his nev enjoyments. Gradually, the old man became so far reconciled to the earnest and noble perseverance of tho youth, as to consider the necessity of seeking for him a teacher of more capacity than had hitherto been thought sufficient for the pui-poses of education. He probably began to feel, in the influence which his son exercised upon himself and others, and in the extraordinary passion which he betrayed for books, that he was really destined to a career very superior to that of the village blacksmith. Lessons in Latin and mathematics, were obt?»ined from a man named Maxwell, and young Greene soon formed a slight acquaintance with the ancients through one of their own tongues, and found himself most decidedly at home in the company of EucJid. Of geometry, in its application to navigation and surveying

16 LIFE OF NATHANIEL GREENE.

he became a master; and his mind was now put doubly in possession of his materials, by being trained in their methodical management. Horace and Cesar were the favorites of his taste, and beguiled his imagination ; while Euclid furnished the necessary exercise for his thoroughly-awakened and sharper intellect. Thus, toiling equally in mind and body — rising to the labors of the forge when necessary, and sinking at every oppoitunity into the well-worn seat beside it, where he had hurriedly laid, down his book — he continued to increase his mental possessions, without forfeiting, as is so commonly the case, any of the vigorous muscle, or admirable health and strength of body, which the sports and labors of his youth had enabled him to acquire. His knowledge of books, speaking comparatively, had greatly increased in the brief period since he had made the acquaintance of the sophomore. An event was now to occur, which should contribute greatly to the proper direction of those aims, which, however profitable in their acquisitions, as compared with the past, were yet somewhat deficient in method, organization, and singleness of purpose. A happy accident was to order and direct the somewhat desultory course of study which he had hitherto pursued. It was the custom of Greene, whenever his labors had afforded him the means to make any addition to his library, to visit Newport in search of a book. On these occasions, a little shallop, which was kepjt at the mills of Potowhommett, and sent periodically to Newport and other towns along the bay of Narraganset, with the manufactures of the mills, supplied the opportunity. Greene usually worked his passage when he visited the town, seeking a market for his wares, the product of his labors in his own time. It was on one of these voyages, made with this object, when he was about seventeen years old, that he hastened to a bookseller in

FINDS A GUIDE TO KNG (7LEDGE. 17

Newport, prepared to lay out his petty earnings for a book. But what book 1 His knowledge of literature was quite too limited to suggest to him the name of the volume which should be most acceptable ; and when the bookseller naturally asked what book he wanted, he could only blush in his ignorance, and stand confused and silent before the inquirer. It happened that a third person was present on this occasion, and became interested in the ingenuous confusion of the boy. This was Dr. Stiles, then a clergyman, and subsequently well known as president of Yale college. He regarded Greene with eyes of curiosity; and, in his appearance — his simple garb, begrimed possibly by the labors of the forge, and whitened by the mill — he conceived instantly the struggle which was in progress, of a naturally strong and well-endowed mind, contending with equal ignorance and poverty. He engaged the boy in conversation, and his impressions were confirmed. The conclusion was, that Stiles took the boy to his house, counselled and encouraged him, became his ally in the pursuit of learning, and gave a proper direction to his tastes and studies. This help relieved him from all future embarrassment in seeking the means of knowledge. He had found something better than a teacher — he had found a guide ; and it now became the important object with our hero to revisit Newport as frequently as possible. His process for the attainment of this object was quite characteristic. He made himself a skilful boatman. He studied the navigation of the river. He was finally promoted to be ntister of the shallop ; and the bookseller of Newport four.d him frequently at his counter, gazing upon his shelves, with the look of one who asks himself, sighing ?ecretly the while, " Shall I ever be the owner of such a treasure as this V His private stock of books was certainly a small one We know that he possessed the

Logic of Watts, Locke's famous Essay, the able volume of Ferguson, on Civil Society, and a few other standard works, like these, of an educational character. That he spared no labor by which he might increase these treasures, may be inferred from the fact, that his heavy labors at the forge finally produced that lameness of the right foot which attended him through life ; while, to enable himself to pass from the coarse work of the forge to the manufacture of those finer fabrics on which his own perquisites chiefly depended, he has been known to grind off the callosities from his hands at the grindstone, in order to give them the necessary pliancy and delicacy of touch ; and this when he was studying logic and philosophy!

His visits to Stiles and Newport brought him to the knowledge of Lindley Murray. The latter was of a quaker family, as well as Greene, and was then on an excursion through the quaker settlements of the eastern colonies. A sympathy in their common objects of pursuit brought the two young men closely together; and Murray accompanied Greene to Potowhommett, whore he so prevailed upon the father, that young Greene was permitted to return the visit the following winter to Murray in New York. The latter had been particularly well educated. His father, conscious of the unwise hostility or indifference of the quaker sect to all liberal studies, had done his best to make his son superior to all their prejudices. His acquisitions were naturally shared with Greene. We may be sure that the blacksmith and mill-boy, whom we have seen gi-inding down his fingers in order to acquire the means of knowledge, did not suffer the opportunity to escape for procuring it on more easy terms, and through the pleasant medium of fiiendship. It was while on this visit to New York that he gave a new proof of that decision of character, that

INOCULATED WITH SMALL-POCK. 19

forethought and superiority over his associates and education, which were the distinguishing traits of his character through life. The small-pock was prevailing with great severity in New York. Greene knew the superstitious dread which was entertained in regard to this disease ; was aware of its real dangers ; and felt the importance of passing the crisis, at a moment when his mind could contemplate it calmly, and when it could not interfere with any pressing employments. He availed himself of the opportunity, to become inoculated with it, and a blemish in one of his eyes, which did not, however, impair the sight, was the consequence. The present courage of the boy in this instance, saved him from all future apprehensions of a disease which continued to spread terror through the courilry.

Chapter II

Youthful Habits.— Parental Discipline.— Progress from Books to Politic8.-i Military Studies and Marriage.

AVe have shown young Greene as a student. It will be admitted that the conditions of his career have been sufficiently arduous as well in letters as in war. But the mind most resolute on acquisition will yet need a respite from its toils. The body demands relief which no enthusiasm of the intellect will be able entirely to with-- hold, particularly in the case of one, whose physique, like that of Greene, is well developed, and whose temperament is sanguine. We have seen that his boyish habit, in the matter of sport, was quite unquakerish — that ho loved, and usually led, in the recreations of his boyish mates. These early propensities did not desert him as he grew older, and in consequence of his newly-awakened passion for books. His character, though really sedate and temperate, was anything but morose. His tendencies were decidedly social. Though satisfied with a single meal per day, and indulging in no beverage more potent than a solitary cup of tea or coffee in the same space of time, yet there were some pleasures in which he was ever ready to indulge to a degi'ee which was apparently inconsistent with his ordinary habits. Rising at the dawn of day, and laboring at forge or farm while the day lasted — and sometimes, at his own labors, to a late hour in the night — it would seem only reasonable to suppose that he was glad when he could •'etire to his couch, and that he slept soundly as soon as he

ELUDES HIS father's VIGILANCE. 21

touche.l the pillow. Such, for a time, was no doubt the opinion of his sober quaker father. But he was mistaken. Young Greene was at an age when the heart particularly needs society — when the instincts of the youth naturally incline to communion with the other sex, and when the impulses acknowledge few restraints of mind or body, of strength sufficient to keep them from the gratification of a favoiite desire. Greene's quaker education might have inculcated a sufficient hostility to dancing, to keep him from the exercise, but that, in its indulgence, it conducted him to female society. At eighteen or twenty the desire for such communion must be acknowledged as sufficiently legitimate for youth. It is, indeed, one of the securities of virtue. But the father of Greene was a quaker and not a philosopher. He made no allowance for such an appetite, and the son was very soon persuaded that, if his passions were to be gratified in this respect, it could only be in the wholesome ignorance of his proceeding, in which he could keep the old gentleman. The household was a very sober one. At a certain hour doors and windows were to be closed and bolted, and all good boys were to be in bed. Young Green obeyed the requisition ; but when the father was safe in the arms of sleep, and in full faith that all his family were similarly disposed of, he might be seen letting himself down from the eaves, and speeding away to the happy places where his young associates were busy in the rustic dance. Thus, night after night, in the depth of winter, would he speed away from the silent homestead, and mingle with the village revellers. His lameness was too slight to offer any serious obstacle to the inartificial movements of a country revel ; and, in thus affording to his limbs and blood the exercises which his nature found equally agi'eeable and necessary, he did noi forfeit in any degree, or impair the value, of his book