the stinging foe of the oppressors of the people.

I have already told you about the war in the North, and of how the
British, after doing all they could to overthrow Washington and conquer
the country, found themselves shut up in the city of New York, with
Washington like a watch-dog outside.

When the British generals found that the North was too hard a nut to
crack, they thought they would try what they could do in the South. So
they sent a fleet and an army down the coast, and before long they had
taken the cities of Savannah and Charleston, and had their soldiers
marching all over Georgia and South Carolina. General Gates, the man to
whom Burgoyne surrendered, came down with a force of militia to fight
them, but he was beaten so badly that he had to run away without a
soldier to follow him. You can imagine that the British were proud of
their success. They thought themselves masters of the South, and fancied
they had only to march north and become masters there, too.

But you must not think that they were quite masters. Back in the woods
and the swamps were men with arms in their hands and with love of
country in their hearts. They were like wasps or hornets, who kept
darting out from their nests, stinging the British troops, and then
darting back out of sight. These gallant bands were led by Marion,
Sumter, Pickens, and other brave men; but Marion's band was the most
famous of them all, so I shall tell you about the Swamp Fox and what he
did.

I fancy all of my young friends would have laughed if they had seen
Marion's band when it joined General Gates' army. Such scarecrows of
soldiers they were! There were only about twenty of them in all, some of
them white and some black, some men and some boys, dressed in rags that
fluttered in the wind, and on horses that looked as if they had been fed
on corncobs instead of corn.

Gates and his men did laugh at them, though they took care not to laugh
when Marion was at hand. He was a small man, with a thin face, and
dressed not much better than his men. But there was a look in his eye
that told the soldiers he was not a safe man to laugh at.

Marion and his men were soon off again on a scout, and after Gates and
his army had been beaten and scattered to the winds, they went back to
their hiding places in the swamps to play the hornet once more.

Along the Pedee River these swamps extended for miles. There were
islands of dry land far within, but they could only be