next moment the young volunteer lay dead upon the ground. "Tis in a good cause!" said the father, and he fought on beside the body of his boy. Soon the colonel saw that further defence was useless, for very soon he would not have any men left to fight at all and so he called them from their posts, and he and they went and stood in the open space before the barrack wall, and there they awaited death. Into the place the enemy rushed over the deserted parapet, through the now unguarded gate, and past the silent guns; and they ranged themselves across the parade with loaded muskets. "Who commands this fort?" demanded their leading officer, and the colonel, courtly gentleman that he was, answered: "Sir, I did but you do now," at the same time presenting the hilt of his sword to the victor, who, taking it, ran the colonel through the body with the surrendered sword. As though his infamous deed were the signal for the execution of the no less infamous order, the armed line poured a volley and then another upon the band before the barrack wall; and then went on with sword and bayonet until sickened by their own bloody work, they ceased the slaughter. Of the garrison, eighty-eight lay dead and thirty-five severely wounded. The rest, most of them wounded, were in the enemy's hands. Beside the body of his colonel lay the lieutenant, with his white face turned toward the sky on which never again should a morning dawn for him and around him eight others of his name lay dead, and three more sorely wounded; and four were prisoners of war. And there the dead and the wounded lay; and the sun set in a bloody sky, and the night swept up from the ocean and hid the river, and the hills, and the town; and then the stars came out again, and the moon, and the faces were pale in the light. Thus the night fell. And so it was that this page of history came to be written. Now why have I transcribed this for my children? Surely not to tell them that men have lived and died, for merely to live and die is nothing. It is only noble lives, and noble deeds, and noble deaths, that are worth recording. And the most precious of things upon this earth is liberty, and it was for liberty that these men fought and died. Look yonder, where flies the flag with its stripes caught from the living colors of the dawn, while above them, set in their field of blue, shine those never fading stars. It was by the lives and the deeds, and the deaths of such men as those that the flag is flying there. Look out upon this land, the country that is ours; where every man is master and not a single soul a slave; where men have gained the highest liberty in that they may govern themselves; where they have earned the right to rule because they have learned first of all the lesson of how to obey. It was by the lives and the deeds and the deaths of such men as those that this land of ours was made free. But why have I chosen this single page? Did not other men die as well for that great cause? It was because I wished my children to know how it was that their grandfather's greatgrandfather died-for he was the lieutenant who fell in the storming of the fort on that September day; and the name of the fifteen others of his kin who fought by his side was the name my children bear. And so the lieutenant lay dead on the field of battle, and it was his son, a boy left behind in the town, who was the grandfather of my children's grandfather. On the roll of honor; on the list of those who fought in defence of Fort Griswold, when New London and Groton, in Connecticut, were sacked and burned by the British under Benedict Arnold, on the 6th of September 1781, beneath the name of the martyred leader, Lieutenant-Colonel William Ledyard, may be read these names: Captain Elijah Avery, killed in action. Sergeant Jasper Avery, killed in action. Sergeant Solomon Avery, killed in action. David Avery, killed in action. Thomas Avery (aged seventeen) killed in action. Ensign Ebenezer Avery, wounded. And Caleb, and Peter, and Rufus,and Nathan, prisoners of war. And I would have my children read those names that they may honor the memory of these men and that by remembering their deeds they may be led to emulate the virtue of their lives, that they, too, may be honored when they come to die. Not that my children are likely to be called upon to die or even to fight for their country, for our hope is that her need of martyrs is no more; but that they may serve her by loving the old flag with the same love that led their forefathers to count life as nothing so that the nation might be free; by being good, and true, and honest, both now and all through life; by simply doing their duty, whether in command or in the ranks; by remembering that no man ever does well who is willing to do less than his best. Let them remember that they are descended from an officer, which is good, and from a gentleman, which is better, whose epitaph they may read on the stone above his grave in Ledyard Cemetery: IN MEMORY OF LIEUT. EBENEZER AVERY who of Fort Griswould and American Freedom Sept. 6th 1781, in ye 49th Exhibiting a noble Specimen of Military Valour and Patriotic Virtue. I want my children to understand that not all the battles which men are called upon to fight are battles of war; that not every soldier wears a uniform; but that there are weary battles of every day, in which each boy and girl is a soldier-a hero, perhaps. I want them to understand that not all victories are told in history; that defeat is honorable when suffered for the right; that to-day, just as much as a hundred years ago, we must fight for liberty, not against the British and the Hessians, as did our ancestors on Groton Heights, but our own battles against wrong, and self, and shame, and sin. ?? CONRAD WEISER, THE PATRON OF TWO RACES Every foot of Pennsylvania is historic ground. Whether in Pennsylvania has had many issultrious men, but among the prominent characters of her early history, probably no man has had a greater influence for good than Conrad Weiser. In the ancient electorate of Wurtenberg, a part of the once famous Palatinate of the Rhine, and in the town of Gross-Aspach, a place of some note in Germany, Conrad Weiser was born November 2, 1696. His father was John Conrad Weiser, a baker by trade, and later by diligence and self culture he succeeded to the position of justice of the peace He was also dis tinguished for his military services. His mother was Anna Magdalene Uebele, a woman of deeply religious temperament. His parents were firm in the discipline of their children. From early youth young Conrad Weiser was taught implicit obedience, which training fitted him for the commanding position which he occupied in later years. During this time Europe was in a state of ferment. The Palatinate was devastated by the French and Spanish aggressions, and religious wars laid waste her domains and drove many of her inhabitants from their native land to seek homes on a foreign shore. The leader of a band of these emigrants was the father of young Conrad Weiser. They fled from the shores of the Rhine and came to England where they embarked across the stormy Atlantic. Queen Anne had directed that part of New York should be given to the Germans but through the deception of Robert Hunter, governor of New York, this land was kept from them, and a rent and tax imposed upon them. Finally through the efforts of John Conrad Weiser, the fertile land of the Schoharie Valley was secured from the Indians and by hard toil they turned this wilderness into a fertile garden. . But the colonists were not permitted to rest in this peace long, for the governor on pretext of defective titles, demanded a large sum of money or the land. The colonists were determined to fly from this oppression and sought aid from Queen Anne, but the queen, their good friend, had died, and no assistance could be obtained. So after much suffering and imprisonment Wieser planned a new exodus, which resulting in failure for himself, as all his projects had proven since he left Europe, was, in the end, a happy enterprise for his son. The governor of Pennsylvania, hearing of the troubles of the Germans and anxious to draw them to his state, lost no time in informing them of the freedom and justice that was accorded to their countrymen in Pennsylvania. The people were joyful at the prospect of freedom, and a number led by Weiser, cut a road from the Schoharie Valley through the forests into the headwaters of the Susquehanna. Down this rock strewn stream these hardy pioneers floated their precious |