, wholesome lads they were, these Tryon County men; wearing brown
and yellow uniforms cut smartly, and their officers in the Continental
buff and blue, riding like regulars; curved swords shining and their
epaulets striking fire in the sunshine.

"Palatines!" said Mount, standing to salute as an officer rode by.
"That's General Herkimer--old Honikol Herkimer--with his hard,
weather-tanned jaws and the devil lurking under his eyebrows; and that
young fellow in his smart uniform is Colonel Cox, old George Klock's
son-in-law; and yonder rides Colonel Harper! Oh, I know 'em, sir; I was
not in these parts for nothing in '74 and '75!"

The drums and fifes were playing "Unadilla" as the regiment marched
past; and my riflemen, lounging along the roadside, exchanged
pleasantries with the hardy Palatines, or greeted acquaintances in their
impudent, bantering manner:

"Hello! What's this Low Dutch regiment? Say, Han Yost, the pigs has eat
off your queue-band! Bedad, they marrch like Albany ducks in fly-time!
Musha, thin, luk at the fat dhrummer laad! Has he apples in thim two
cheeks, Jack? I dunnoa! Hey, there goes Wagner! Hello, Wagner! Wisha,
laad, ye're cross-eyed an' shquint-lipped a-playin' yere fife
hind-end furrst!"

And the replies from the dusty, brown ranks, steadily passing:

"Py Gott! dere's Jack Mount! Look alretty, Jacob! Hello, Elerson! Ish
dot true you patch your breeches mit second-hand scalps you puy in
Montreal? Vat you vas doing down here, Tim Murphy? Oh, joost look at dem
devils of Morgan! Sure, Emelius, dey joost come so soon as ve go. Ya!
Dey come to kiss our girls, py cricky! Uf I catch you round my girl
alretty, Dave Elerson--"

"Silence! Silence in the ranks!" sang out an officer, riding up. The
brown column passed on, the golden dust hanging along its flanks. Far
ahead we could still hear the drums and fifes playing "Unadilla."

"They ought to have a flag; a flag's a good thing to fight for," said
Mount, looking after them. "I fought for the damned British rag when I
was fifteen. Lord! it makes me boil to think that they've forgot what we
did for 'em!"

"We Virginians carried a flag at the siege o' Boston," observed Elerson.
"It was a rattlesnake on a white ground, with the motto, 'Don't tread
on me!'"

I told them of the new flag that our Congress had chosen, describing it
in detail. They listened attentively, but made no comment.

It was on these expeditions that I learned something of thes