he Bearer to receive
Fifty Spanish milled dollars or the value thereof in Gold or
Silver, according to the Resolution passed by Congress at
Philadelphia, September 26th, 1788.

"J. WATKINS; I. K."

And we had several dozen of these of equal or less denomination.

"Goodness," exclaimed Elsin, "was my guinea worth all these dollars?
And do you suppose that we could buy anything with these paper bills?"

"Certainly," I said, loyal to my country's currency; "they're just as
good as silver shillings--if you only have enough of them."

"But what use will they be to me in Canada?"

That was true enough. I immediately pocketed the mass of paper and
tendered her a guinea in exchange, but she refused it, and we had a
pretty quarrel there under the maple-tree.

"Carus," she said at last, "let us keep them, anyhow, and never, never
spend them. Some day we may care to remember this July afternoon, and
how you and I went a-shopping as sober as a wedded pair in Hanover
Square."

There was a certain note of seriousness in her voice that sobered me,
too. I drew her arm through mine, and we strolled out into the sunshine
and northward along the little river, where in shallow brown pools
scores of minnows stemmed the current, and we saw the slim trout lying
in schools under the bush's shadows, and the great silver and blue
kingfishers winging up and down like flashes of azure fire.

A mile out a sentinel stopped us, inquiring our business, and as we had
none we turned back, for it mattered little to us where we sauntered.
Farmers were cutting hay in the river-meadows, under the direction of a
mounted sergeant of dragoons; herds of cattle and sheep grazed among
the hills, shepherded by soldiers. Every now and again dragoons rode
past us, convoying endless lines of wagons piled up with barrels,
crates, sacks of meal, and sometimes with bolts of coarse cloth.

To escape the dust raised by so many hoofs and wheels we took to the
fields and found a shady place on a hill which overlooked the country.
Then for the first time I realized the nearness of the army, for
everywhere in the distance white tents gleamed against the green, and
bright flags were flying from hillocks, and on a level plain that
stretched away toward the Hudson I saw long dark lines moving, or
halted motionless, with the glimmer of steel playing through the
sunshine; and I, for the first time, beheld a brigade of our army at
exercise.

We were to