y a handful
an' I heard that the volunteers won't stay. Three thousan' o' them left
t' other day. Can't win a war that way. If they'd only listen to Barry
they'd have a navy now, an' if they want to catch Clinton in New York
they'll need a navy."

"Is the Captain home?"

"I saw him t' other day. He is goin' t' Boston t' command the _Raleigh_,
a thirty-two gunner. But one's no good. He needs a fleet."

"Thank God! The French have come. Peace is here now."

"It's money we need more'n soldiers. We can git an army right here if we
could only pay 'em. No one 'll fight fur nuthin'. They're starvin' as
much as us."

The fact that the hopes of this American couple had suffered a partial
collapse, must be attributed rather to the internal state of affairs
than to the military situation. While it is true that no great military
objective had been gained as a result of the three years of fighting,
yet the odds at the present moment were decidedly on the American side.
Still the country was without anything fit to be called a general
government. The Articles of Confederation, which were intended to
establish a league of friendship between the thirteen states, had not
yet been adopted. The Continental Congress, continuing to decline in
reputation and capacity, provoked a feeling of utter weariness and
intense depression. The energies and resources of the people were
without organization.

Resources they had. There was also a vigorous and an animated spirit of
patriotism, but there were no means of concentrating and utilizing
these assets. It was the general administrative paralysis rather than
any real poverty that tried the souls of the colonists. They heartily
approved of the war; Washington now held a higher place in their hearts
than he had ever held before; peace seemed a certainty the longer the
war endured. But they were weary of the struggle and handicapped by the
internal condition of affairs.

Jim and his wife typified the members of the poorer class, the class
upon whom the war had descended with all its horror and cruelty and
desolation. Whatever scanty possessions they had, cows, corn, wheat or
flour, had been seized by the foraging parties of the opposing forces,
while their horse and wagon had been impressed into the service of the
British, at the time of the evacuation of the city, to cart away the
stores and provisions. A means of occupation had been denied Jim during
the period of stagnation and what mere e