er
unbolted the outer door and admitted five of the armed men--the prisoner
and one of his captors remaining without. Nathaniel thought this
unnecessary of so cold a night, and a little suspicious--'Will not thy
companions enter also?'

"'No, thank you; he guards the prisoner.'

'But why may not the prisoner, too?' 'Pshaw! he's nothing but a
deserter. The cold will be good for _him_.'

"'I must say,' quote Nathan, 'exercised,' as he afterwards owned, past
endurance, 'thy conduct neither becomes thy nature as a man, or thy
calling, which should teach thee more feeling--I'll take the poor fellow
something to eat myself.'

"The old man had reached the door on his merciful errand, meaning it is
true, to satisfy his curiosity at the same time, when he who had acted
as leader of the party sprang from his chair, and, placing his hand on
his host's breast, pushed him rudely back. 'Stand back--back, I say, and
mind your own business, if you _are_ a Quaker.'

"There was a momentary struggle in Nathan's mind, whether to knock
the fellow down, as from appearances he easily might, or to yield,
in obedience to his _principles._ 'It was strongly on his mind,' he
confessed, to pursue the former course, but prudence conquered, and
he quietly withdrew to the upper end of the apartment, where his men
lounged on a bench, apparently half asleep, and indistinctly visible
in the light of the fire and one small candle, which burned near the
strangers. In the interim, the old cook had been summoned, and had
arranged some cold provisions on the table. 'Old Annie,' the cook, was
the child of Indian and mulatto parents, but possessed none of the
features of her darker relation, except a capacious mouth and lips
to match. She refused to associate with either negroes or Indians,
considering herself as belonging to neither, and indulging a
sovereign contempt for both. Her favorite term of reproach was 'Injin'
and 'nigger,' and when they failed _separately_ to express her feelings,
she put the two together, a compliment always paid the Hessians, when
she had occasion to mention them. A party of these marauders had, on
a visit to her master's house, stolen her fall's store of sausages;
thenceforth she vowed eternal hatred to the race--a vow she never forgot
to the day of her death.

"The strangers ate their repast, showing anything but confidence in
their entertainer, and ate, each man with his gun resting on his
shoulder. During the whole meal