s and lighted the fire again. The fire was burning
well, and P-Putnam was squirming away from the heat, when a French
officer ran up, k-kicked the branches aside, cut the cords, told the
Injuns to stand back, and led P-Putnam away. I heard afterward that this
man's name was Morin, and that he was the leader of the expedition.

"The next morning at daybreak we got into the b-batteaux and canoes, and
rowed down Wood Creek. I was in a b-batteau. They gave me an oar, and
made me work for all I was worth. If I let up for a minute, they hit me
and threatened to k-kill me. That ugly fellow who swore at me the day
before was in the boat, and I c-could understand him. He made things
very clear, as he jabbed the m-muzzle of his gun into my ribs, and
h-held his finger on the trigger.

"They were in a hurry to get out of the way of any f-force of our men
that might be sent to cut them off. We reached T-Ticonderoga that night.
They turned us prisoners out into a pasture with some scrubby trees in
it, and p-put a guard around us. And there they k-kept us, giving us
hardly anything to eat, t-till at last we grew so hungry that we
p-pulled the bark off the b-black birches, and ate it to stay our
stomachs. I thought considerable of home while I was b-browsing round in
that p-pasture, and of what I used to do. Not so m-much of
pigeon-shooting and fox-hunting as of things I disliked, p-ploughing in
the spring, hilling corn till my back ached, cutting logs into lengths
for firewood till my arms were t-tired out and my hands b-blistered.

[Sidenote: FOND RECOLLECTIONS]

"These were all unpleasant, but I remembered the comfortable home and
the supper that came after the work, and how I used to eat my fill in
safety. And here I was, likely to be scalped or burned to death, and my
innards just a griping and a yearning for a b-bit of solid food.

"There were some four thousand Frenchmen in the fort, Canadians,
Indians, and the regulars in their white coats.

"I was bound to get away if I could, and watched for a chance. We were
not f-far from the breastwork.

"Sentinels walked up and down on the inner side, and I knew that I could
not c-crawl over it, without being seen. They did not pay so much
attention to the swampy ground at either end. I made up my mind to g-get
to the low land, and pass by the end of the breastwork.

"After we had been there six days, a storm began in the afternoon. The
rain came down in torrents, and the wind b-b