"'What, them Hessians, the bloody thieves?' and the old woman's eyes
lighted up, and she almost arose in her bed with astonishment, as she
asked the question.

'Yes; even _them_: you are about to need forgiveness as much as
they--they _were_ your enemies and persecutors, whom you are especially
enjoined to pardon, as you would expect to be pardoned.'

'So it is, Mr. Charles; you say the truth,--poor ignorant, sinful mortal
that I am! Well, then, I do--I _hope_ I _do_--forgive 'em; I'll try--the
bloody _creeters_.'

"There; will that do for a story, Thomas Jefferson?" asked the old
grandfather, when he had concluded. The old man had a straight-forward,
natural way of telling a story that showed he had practised it
frequently. The boy seemed much gratified by the horrible narration.
Mrs. Harmar said she was interested, but didn't like it much; her
husband remarked, however, that it would make a thrilling sketch.

"I suppose that Nathaniel Collins was very much the same sort of a
Quaker as General Green," said Morton. "They were peaceable men, as
long as peace and quiet were not inconsistent with self-defence. To
be peaceable when a foe is wasting your fields and slaughtering your
brethren, is cowardly and against nature."

"That's truth," replied Higgins. "We must look upon a merciless invader
in the same light as upon a cruel beast, whom it is saving life to
slay."