Peggy Owen

“ Some of these found a way to reconcile principles with patriotism and, entering the American army, were known as “fighting Quakers.” David Owen, Peggy’s father, was one of these, and the first book of this series, “Peggy Owen,” told of some dangers that his brave little daughter underwent to serve the cause she loved. In “Peggy Owen Patriot” is the story of a winter in New Jersey at Washington’s camp, Peggy’s capture, her unwilling stay in New York, and her final escape from her British captors in the Carolinas. Her pony, “Star,” who appears again in this story, shared many of her dangers. ”

“ They were by this time some fifteen miles east of Hillsborough, where the remnant of the patriot army lay. The road was lonely, the quiet broken only by the whimpering of the baby and the querulous soothing of the mother. Peggy felt depressed and mentally reproached herself for it.
“Thee is foolish, Peggy,” she chided sternly, “to heed such things. If the poor woman can bear it thee should not let it wherrit thee. Now be brave, Peggy Owen! just think how soon thee will see mother. Can thee not bear a little discomfort for that? And how exciting ’twill be to tell them——What was that?” ”

“ Thee is patriotic, anyway.”
“How?” asked Sally as Betty, foreseeing some further jest, would not speak.
“By helping to cement the French Alliance, of course,” laughed Peggy.
“Thee is worse than Sally,” pouted Betty turning to look out of the window. “Peggy, is thee to go in a one-horse cabriolet? Because there is one coming up Chestnut Street now. Let me see! A woman is within and it is driven by a young man. Heigh-ho! ’Tis a promising outlook. There is a baggage wagon following with two men on the seat. Thee will be well escorted, Miss Peggy Owen.” ”

“ As he started to leave them William Owen looked up.
“Include Harriet in that too, my son,” he said. “This will be a sad place for her until after the manner of capitulation hath been arranged.”
“I shall not go, father,” interposed the maiden raising her head proudly. “An English girl hath no place among victorious foes. Send Peggy and you will, but I shall not leave you in your humiliation.”
“So be it,” he said.
Thus it came about that Peggy found herself outside the British works, advancing toward the American lines under a flag. ”

“ You are pale, and thinner than when I saw you last. Mercy! how long ago it seems, yet ’twas but the first week in last month. I have had such a good time in New York, Peggy,” she ran on without waiting for answers to her questions. “The routs and the assemblies were vastly entertaining. And the plays! Oh, Peggy, you should have been there. I thought of you often, and wished you with me, you little gray mouse of a cousin! Why do you wear that frock? I like it not.”
“Did thee in truth think of me?” asked Peggy wistfully. “With all that pleasuring I wonder that thee had time.” ”

“ Peggy laughed.
“Sally, she will never make him talk in the world,” she declared. “Thou and I will have a good laugh at her when ’tis over. ’Twill give a fine chance to tease.”
“’Tis just like a party,” cried Betty as, a little later, they were gathered about the table. “’Tis charming to meet old friends! And everybody is here save thy cousins, Clifford and Harriet, Peggy. Oh, yes! and Captain Drayton.”
“Captain Drayton is to go to Lancaster too, I understand,” remarked Mr. Owen. “Did thee know, lass?”
“No, father. I thought he was still with General Greene. He returned to him after Yorktown.” ”

“ But he is not a spy, not an informer, not a deserter——”
“I KNEEL TO YOU, SIR.”
“Nor was Captain Johnson,” he reminded her. “Yet he was hanged most treacherously.”
“But not by Clifford, sir! Not by Clifford! He would scorn to do such a deed.” She stood for a moment, regarding him with such pleading that Peggy choked. Suddenly Harriet crossed the room and flung herself before him.
“Sir,” she cried seizing his hand, “Harriet Owen hath never knelt to mortal man before save her king. I kneel to you, sir, and I beg, I implore you to exercise clemency toward my brother. ”

“ With amazing frankness she related how she had tried to capture both General Washington and Governor Livingston. Her brother listened in wide-eyed astonishment.
“And father let you engage in such emprises?” he queried with pained surprise.
Harriet smiled.
“I liked the danger, Cliff,” she said. “’Tis risk that gives the zest to all undertakings. Life is like food: insipid without some spice. Beside, here was Peggy to rescue me from paying the penalty of my acts. Poor Peggy! she thought she had fallen upon evil days when I carried her off to New York.” ”

“ Colonel Owen was as gloomy as his son over the prospect of surrender. He frowned at sight of Peggy.
“I suppose that you are rejoicing over our defeat, my little cousin,” he exclaimed harshly. 397
“I am glad indeed that the cause hath succeeded, my cousin,” answered the girl frankly. “We have fought so long that ’tis matter for rejoicing when at length the victory is ours. Yet,” she added meeting his look with one of compassion, “I am sorry for thee, too. I grieve to see either a proud nation or a proud man humbled.”
“And is it indeed over, as Clifford says, father?” questioned Harriet. ”

“ There will be no flaw in carrying out the sentence, I promise you.”
“And all this time, while I have thought him disloyal, he hath been true, true!” cried Peggy brokenly. “Oh, I should have known! I should have known!”
“And he is in your charge, Cliff?” asked Harriet. “My, but you are coming on! Father will have to look to his laurels.”
“You are o’er young, my son, to have the management of so serious an affair,” remarked Colonel Owen gravely. “Lord Cornwallis likes young men, and hath favored them upon many occasions when ’twould have been better to give preference to older men. ”

“ Now confess,” pinching Peggy’s cheek playfully, “you did not dream that I was aught other than Truelove Davis; did you?”
“N-no; and yet thee puzzled me,” said Peggy. “Oh, Harriet, thee should turn play actress.”
“Well, there are times when I think of it, cousin mine. ’Tis rare sport to make others believe that I am that which I am not.”
“But why did thee do it, Harriet? And to be here alone on the highway!”
“I wanted to see Clifford, Peggy. Neither father nor I had heard aught from him since the misfortune at Yorktown, save that he was at Lancaster. ”

“ Nurse Johnson shivered as the sounds of the hunt came to them.
“A man hunt is always such a dreadful thing,” she remarked. “And whether it be for a slave or an enemy, I find my sympathy going with the hunted. I hope they won’t find this poor fellow. Yet I have no love for the English.”
“Thee is like the rest of us,” replied Mistress Owen. “A good hater of the enemy in the aggregate, but a commiserator of one who happens to be in a plight. Peggy, how restless thee is!”
“I am, mother,” answered Peggy rising, and going to the window. “This hath upset me.” ”

“ But be friends, won’t you? There is much more sport to be had here in the city than in yon camp. You shall share with me in the fun.”
“I care not for it,” rejoined Peggy coldly. “And I will never forgive thee, Harriet Owen. Never! I see not how thee could act so.”
And so saying she turned from her cousin 288 with unmistakable aversion, and walking to the window gazed with aching heart at the Jersey shore line. Harriet stood for a moment, and then went out, closing the door behind her. Presently Peggy flung herself on the bed and gave way to her bitter woe in a flood of tears. ”

“ Keep moving, methinks. ’Tis the only way to reach anywhere.”
Peggy tried to smile at her little sally, but with poor success. The pony trotted ahead as if she at least was not bewildered, and presently, 409 to the girl’s amazement, of her own accord turned into a lane that would have escaped Peggy’s notice. To her further astonishment at a short distance from the highway stood a woodman’s hut, and the mare paused before the door.
“Why, thou dear creature!” cried Peggy in delight. “It seems just as though thee knew the way.” ”

“ Owen thoughtfully. She was a very just mother, and Peggy always felt her punishments were deserved.
“I can’t let it go and do nothing about it,” said Mrs. Owen. “I tell you what I’ll do. I’ll go over to Mrs. Horton’s with Alice and leave you to keep house, Peggy, until I come back. Old Michael may come with some seed catalogues. If he does you can keep him until I get back. As soon as I do, you can run right down for the yeast-cake, and this time I am sure you will not stop on the way. Then you can go to Clara’s for what is left of the afternoon.” ”

“ Heigh-ho! to think of Harriet Owen, daughter of William Owen, a colonel of the Welsh Fusileers, and a most loyal subject of His Majesty, making a shirt for one of the rebels. What would father think of it, I wonder?”
“I think that he would rather have thee so engaged than to have thee give up to thy fancies, Harriet,” answered Peggy as her cousin drew the garment from among the pillows of the settle, and held it up to view. “Did thee put thy name on it? Mistress 17 Reed wishes every woman and girl who makes one to embroider her name on it.” ”

“ The two men in the baggage wagon are an 136 addition also that we did not expect. They have charge of some supplies for the hospital which Dr. Cochran is sending with us. I was glad to have them. ’Tis more agreeable in a long journey to have a party.”
“Mother!” breathed Peggy, her eyes glowing with the idea. “Could not the young man ride Star?”
“I was just thinking of that, my child,” said Mrs. Owen with an indulgent smile. “’Tis in truth a way opened for thee to take thy pony.”
“Do you indeed mean that Fairfax may ride a horse of yours, my dear?” questioned Nurse Johnson, rising. ”

“ And I have learned much, Peggy. I have done good work.”
“Harriet,” interrupted Peggy amazed at the recital, “does thee mean to tell me thee knew when mother and I were coming?”
“To the very day,” answered Harriet with a laugh. “Oh, we keep well informed in New York. You little know the people who 263 are around you. And your general hath spies among us, too. ’Tis fortune of war, Peggy.”
“So General Washington said,” mused Peggy. “But I would thee were not one. ’Tis a life full of trickery and deceit. I like it not for a girl.” ”

“ She grew weary of the incessant round of entertainments. There had been much social intercourse at the camp, but it had been tempered by sobriety, and life was not wholly given up to it. Peggy resolved that she would have to occupy herself in other ways.
“Cousin William,” she said one morning, seeking Colonel Owen in his study, where he 296 sat looking over some papers with a frowning brow, “may I talk with thee a little?”
“Is it anent the matter of home?” he queried. “I can do nothing, Peggy. You will have to stay here. We can’t have a rebel come into our lines and then leave, you know.” ”

“ Have Tom to bring Star around at once. The others are waiting.”
“Shall I wear a loo-mask or a vizard, mother?” questioned Peggy, giving an anxious glance at her reflection in the mirror.
“The loo-mask, Peggy. ’Tis easier held in place. Not thy gray duffle riding frock, child. ’Tis o’er warm for that. Methinks that a safeguard petticoat over the gown that thee has on with a short camlet cloak will do nicely. I will tell Tom to bring Star around for thee.”
“Sally, what does thee think? I am to have a new frock for General Arnold’s tea,” confided Peggy as her mother left the room. ”

“ I think it would be the finest street in the world if it were not for the markets in the middle of it.”
“Does thee?” cried Peggy much pleased. “Why, I thought thee didn’t like Philadelphia?”
“I do like the city. The streets are so broad and regular, and these footways are like those we have in London. ’Tis the people that are not to my liking.” The girl sighed.
For a moment Peggy could not answer for indignation; then, choking back a crushing retort, she replied sagely:
“The people are well enough, Harriet. ’Tis thy feeling which is not right. Thee certainly has the megrims to-day.” ”

“ Colonel Owen looked up from his place at the head of the table and regarded the maiden disapprovingly.
“Peggy is a foolish little girl,” he remarked with some sharpness. “Captain Drayton hath returned to his true allegiance, and I see no reason why such a show of grief should be deemed necessary. ’Tis not only unseemly, but vastly indelicate as well. As for action, not only she but all of us will have to move whether we choose or not. The army goes on the march again to-morrow.”
“Where, father?” asked Harriet in surprise. “Is ‘t not a sudden determination on his lordship’s part?” ”

“ At this Clifford laughed outright.
[Pg 413]
“That is because you know me as I am,” he observed. “Now I cannot think of you as being anything but a little Quakeress. You see, we get our ideas of persons when we first know them, and then we cannot change.”
“‘And cannot change,’” she repeated with some amusement. “Clifford Owen, thee didn’t like me at all at first.”
“No, I did not,” he responded, and laughed again. “’Twas because I did not know you aright. Peggy, see how light-hearted you have made me. Our merriment hath caused Colonel Dayton to give us unusual attention.” ”

“ Peggy gave an ejaculation of astonishment as her hostess led her to the bed.
“’Tis Fairfax Johnson,” she cried. “Oh, friend, how does thee do? Thy mother told me that thee was not well. How strange that I should find thee here!”
“Why, ’tis Mistress Peggy!” exclaimed the young fellow, sitting up quickly, a deep flush dyeing his face. “How, how did you get here?”
“I am trying to get home,” she told him. “I left Williamsburg yesterday morning, and hoped to reach Fredericksburg to-night, but our good friend here tells me that the British are at Hanover Court House. ”