Various

“ But, recently, folks of the great State have come to think more of the little house and to recognize gratefully the part which it played in their history. They have lifted it from its late dingy surroundings and, as if to put before it the city’s best, have placed it on the west bank of the Schuylkill, overlooking Fairmount Park. Here, far away from the city’s centre, with its face toward the broad, green valley of the river, the little mansion rests patiently, as if waiting until the city shall again closely encircle it in its westward growth. ”

“ The secret of accomplishing the most and making the best of our time is by concentrating upon our task. Whether it be our lessons, our work, or our play, we can succeed only by bringing to bear upon it our whole mind and strength. Then, too, it is only when we have made our school days days of accomplishment that we can derive the fullest enjoyment from our vacation. ”

“ Hear them chirp as they fly overhead some night in the spring or fall. That was Bobolink’s idea, and it was a good one, too. It keeps them from separating in the darkness.
None of the Woodfolk ever learned who the white stranger was. Some thought him a ghost or spirit, but all of them fear even the thought of him. No wonder they have never since dared to stay north during the winter. Of course, the larger ones, like Hawk or Crow, do not always leave, for they are not afraid of the stranger. ”

“ There was little danger of the Continentals attacking them, for the hills were already whitening with the coverlet of winter. The river was open, supplies and reinforcements were on the way from across the ocean, and the British had nothing to fear. So they gave themselves up to ease and merriment. And fortunate for the cause, then trembling in the balance, that they did so, for had they then conducted the campaign against Washington’s starving troops with vigor, the “rebellion” would never have risen in history to the dignity of a “revolution”! ”

“ In each hand was an old hatchet.
“Never you fear, Miss Hetty,” came Arctura’s voice from the porch hall, as this extraordinary figure began to caper about the room, uttering discordant yells and brandishing the hatchets, “there isn’t a weapon in his outfit that would cut a string. Mercy on us, keep away from me!” she shrieked, as the calico mask turned in her direction.
Presently Polly appeared with a little basket on her arm, walking along with eyes cast down. ”

“ At times when he seemed most so, sitting among his books, or gazing silently into the fire, his brain had been active over some problem that perplexed or interested him. “Never hasting, never wasting” time, nor thought, nor any energy of life. That was his rule, and she would make it hers.
“I can, at least, make things more comfortable out-of-doors. Angelique has let even Snowfoot suffer, sometimes, for want of the grooming and care she’s always had. The poultry, too, and the poor garden. I’m glad I’m strong enough to rake and hoe, even if I couldn’t lift Uncle as Joe does.” ”

“ To-day, after the passing of a century and a quarter, the Chester hills are much as they were on that chill winter’s day when the straggling lines of ragged, almost barefooted men marched along the old Gulph road. ”

“ It was the beginning of that awful winter when naught but the extraordinary virtues of George Washington himself kept the semblance of an army together. The American forces were rapidly becoming a disorganized mob, and the fault lay with Congress, which numbered in its group few of the really great and unselfish men who had once met in Philadelphia to approve of and sign the second greatest document in our history. ”

“ It is upon such young men as he that we most earnestly depend. Some of us older ones may not live to see the end of this war, and the younger generation must live to carry it on.”
Hadley did not think him austere now; his eyes were sad and his face worn and deeply lined. Not alone did the rank and file of the American army suffer physically during that awful winter; many of the officers went hungry, too, and it was whispered that often Washington’s own dinner was divided among the hollow-eyed men who guarded his person and sentineled the road leading to the little stone cottage. ”

“ Always that tossing to and fro, the queer, jumbled talk, the growing thinner—all of the dreadful signs of how he suffers. Angelique, if I could bear it for him. I am so young and strong and worth nothing to this world, while he’s so wise and good. ”

“ When he returned with the lantern she was standing in the middle of the barn floor and made a sweeping courtesy to him as he entered.
“That’s good,” said Hiram, setting down the lantern and seating himself on the lowest stair of the flight that led up to the loft. “That’s first-rate. How would it be if you should make two of ’em—one to the left and one to the right? In case folks were seated promiscuous—that is here and there,” explained Hiram, “it would be fair to all parties. That’s it—that’s the way to do it!” and he clapped his hands as Polly greeted an imaginary audience. ”

“ He always stays on the island when uncle goes, and he’ll remember. Oh! I’m brighter already, and I guess, I believe, it is as Angelique claims—God won’t take away so good a man as uncle and leave me alone. Though I am not alone. I have a father! I have a father somewhere, if I only knew—all in good time—and I’m growing gladder and gladder every minute.”
She could even sing to the stroke of her paddle, and she skimmed the water with increasing speed. ”

“ Waving his hand to his friends, Alfred Whyte pushed the bateau into the water, took his seat in the centre, and with a few strong, even strokes of the paddle sent the frail craft out of sight around a bend in the stream.
It was on the edge of the Florida Everglades, those low, marshy tracts of swamp land that cover the whole of the lower end of the peninsula. Two New York boys, Willard King and Marvin Stebbins, had homesteaded a claim in the heart of the morass and were engaged in growing tomatoes for the northern markets. ”

“ I mean they had burned themselves up! Don’t you like to play any make-believes?”
“Yes, I like some,” admitted the boy, frankly, “but you wouldn’t like my kind, and I call yours pretty slow.”
“What kind of make-believes do you like best?” asked Polly, as she and the dreaded guest sat together in the library at dusk. Miss Pomeroy was entertaining Marm Hackett in the parlor, much to the old woman’s rage, she having desired a talk with the newcomer, for whom she had prepared a list of searching questions.
“I like the kind of make-believes that are in books,” said the boy, staring into the fire. ”

“ I don’t see my way clear to sitting down at dinner for a talk with you, for I’ve been having a little neuralgy and the air in the dining-room seems kind of chilly after the kitchen.”
“Do you take a nap every day?” asked Bobby, curiously, as he and Polly drank their milk and ate the crisp crullers. “I s’pose girls like to do that kind of thing, but I’d rather read all night than waste time sleeping in the daylight. I’ve never known any girl very well except my sister. I’m afraid of them, they’re so queer.” ”

“ A great many years ago, hundreds and hundreds in fact, birds stayed all year round in the same place they had built their nests, and, no doubt, they would do so now if they had their choice. But as it is, they no sooner feel the first breath of winter than they hurry away as if pursued by some enemy. ”

“ Had clothing and supplies been abundant, the little army might have harassed the British [Pg 243] all winter long, and even shut them up completely in Philadelphia when the spring opened. If the officers quarreled with the commander for his obstinacy in choosing this position, the men set to in some cheerfulness to build shelters. They were not afraid of hard work, and they had suffered enough already from the cold and storms to appreciate the log cabins which went up as if by magic on hillside and in hollow. ”

“ Next time she comes over to our house, I’m going to get grandfather just to suggest to her that it’s time to give up nicknames when a boy’s all but in his teens. He can do it all right. Maybe she’ll bring you over. I’d like to show you George Rogers, and we could do our act for you.”
“Perhaps I shall be in school then,” said Polly, feeling highly honored by this invitation, “there are only two weeks more vacation.”
“You’re not going to school next term,” said Bobby. “I know, for Aunt Hetty told me. She wants to get you more ‘chippered up,’ Arctura says. Isn’t Arctura an old dear? ”

“ Quaint, angular, and comfortable in appearance, it faithfully reflects the spirit of Philadelphia’s early people. True to the founder’s ideal in the laying-out of the city, the house, too, is characterized by economy of space and absence of mere ornament. Doors, windows, sills, and sashes—everything, in fact, except the gabled roof, is plain and rectangular.
[Pg 238]
From the front door, we enter its largest room, serving, perhaps, at one time as dining hall, sitting-room, kitchen, and library. ”

“ Brought up in the forests of northern Maine, and seeing few persons excepting her uncle and Angelique, the Indian housekeeper, Margot Romeyn knows little of life beyond the deep hemlocks. Naturally observant, she is encouraged in her out-of-door studies by her uncle, at one time a college professor. Through her woodland instincts, she and her uncle are enabled to save the life of Adrian Wadislaw, a youth who, lost and almost overcome with hunger, has been wandering in the neighboring forest. ”

“ And, anyway, you’ve got lots of places to hide, where nobody could get you. But I can’t hide. I’m obliged to be right out where he can see me, and tell whether I’m like his sister Eleanor that died, and maybe change Miss Pomeroy’s mind after all, and lose Grandma Manser her ear-trumpet, and the money for the leaks and shingles and everything!”
Polly buried her face in the old shawl for a minute, and then sat up straight with a little gasp. ”

“ Margot herself grew lighter of heart and more positive that, after all, things would end well.
“You see, Angelique dismal, we might as well take that broken glass sign to mean [Pg 254] good things as evil; that uncle will soon be up and around again, Pierre be at home; and the ‘specimen’ from the old cave prove copper or something just as rich, and—everybody be as happy as a king.”
Angelique grunted her disbelief, but was thankful for the other’s lighter mood.
“Well, then, if you’ve so much time and strength to spare, go yonder and redde up the room that Adrian left so untidy. ”

“ Hadley Morris, our hero, is in the employ of Jonas Benson, the host of the Three Oaks, a well-known inn on the road between Philadelphia and New York. Like most of his neighbors, Hadley is an ardent sympathizer with the American cause. When, therefore, he is intrusted with a message to be forwarded to the American headquarters, the boy gives up, for the time, his duties at the Three Oaks and sets out for the army. ”

“ Here and there along the route the admiring descendants of those faithful patriots have erected monuments to their name; yonder can still faintly be defined the outlines of the Star Redoubt; there stands the house which was the headquarters of General Varnum, who commanded the Rhode Island troops; to the left of the road as one travels toward Valley Forge, is the line of breastworks running through the timber, which has been felled and grown up thrice since the axes of the Continentals rang from hill to hill. ”

“ He lives in the far north and comes down to us only in the very cold weather, when snow covers the ground. When we see the great white fellow with his large yellow eyes, we can hardly wonder why the Woodfolk were so frightened. But the truth of it is that Snowy Owl, unless very hungry, would not harm the birds at all, for he lives mostly upon the small four-footed animals. What a pity it is that our birds leave us in the winter, some of them to go all the way to South America, just because of a superstitious fear for an arctic visitor who would not harm them if he could! ”

“ General Washington’s plans were disarranged. The Americans had fought bravely and, without doubt, were on the eve of a decisive victory. But an alarm was created—the tramp of a regiment of American troops brought up from the rear was thought to be the approach of a flanking force—and the men who had fought so tenaciously during the day retreated in disorderly confusion. ”

“ Hadley never entered the presence of the great man without, in a measure, feeling that sense of Washington’s superiority which he had experienced when first he saw him, and he stood at one side now, ill at ease, waiting for a chance to deliver his packet. ”

“ There is undoubtedly among some of us a lack of that ardor with which we hailed vacation. Nevertheless, none of us can fail to anticipate gladly the greeting of old friends and the return to that life which, though routine in its nature, will, in after years, be regarded as the brightest period of our existence.
In school, as in any other path of life, we can only get the most out by putting the most into it. The amount we accomplish, therefore, is determined in a great way by our powers of application. ”

“ On the bank of Valley Creek, near its junction with the Schuylkill, stood a stone cottage (as it stands to-day) of two small, low-ceiled rooms on each of its two floors. Behind it was a “lean-to” kitchen, in the floor of which was a trap which was the entrance to a secret passage which, when the house had been erected, led to the river, being a means of escape should the stone house be attacked by Indians. When Washington selected this house for his headquarters at Valley Forge the secret passage had long since been walled up and the entrance chamber was simply a prosaic potato cellar. ”

“ Everybody who ever knew him must be the better for Uncle Hughie, Angelique.”
“’Tis truth. For that, the good God will spare him to us. Of that be sure.”
[Pg 251]
“But I pray and pray and pray, and there comes no answer. He is never any better. You know that. You can’t deny it. Always before, when I have prayed, the answer has come swift and sure; but now—”
“Take care, Margot. ’Tis not for us to judge the Lord’s strange ways. Else were not you and me and the master shut up alone on this island, with no doctor near, and only our two selves to keep the dumb things in comfort. ”

“ We are often brought into contact with persons not otherwise gifted, who continually surprise us by the amount they accomplish. Could we but make a study of them we would see that the greatest part of their ability lies in this same power of concentration. On whatever they undertake they put their whole mind. What appears to be a wonderful versatility is merely the ability to do one thing at a time, and to do it well. ”