"She's so hot," says he, doubling his sleeve into his palm, "that I
can't hold her; but I can't stop firing NOW!"

I met his wishes exactly, I knew by that word; for he always called
every thing he liked, SHE. The sun was SHE; so was his father's old
London-made watch; so was the Continental Congress.

General Washington saw the whole;--the enemy, driven back before our
fire, could never be brought to look us in the face again. We held
the ground;--the Virginia troops rallied; --General Washington took
off his cocked hat, and lifted it high, like a finished gentleman,
as he was. "Hurrah!" he shouted, "God bless the New England troops!
God bless the Massachusetts line!" [Footnote: This was all fact,
related by one who was present.] And his steady face flamed and gave
way like melting metal.

Ah, what a set of men were those! I felt the firm trip-hammer of all
their pulses beat through the whole fight, for we stood in platoon,
shoulder to shoulder. I felt my kindred with every one of them. They
had more steel in their nerves and more iron in their blood than
other men. Not a man cared a straw for his life, so he saved from
wrong and bondage the lives of them that should come after him.

That day's work raised hope in every man's heart through the land.
Said I not well that it was the most glorious of my life?

I have but little more to say. I have said more than I meant to,
more perhaps than was wise to say of my own glory. But the thought
of those brave days of old makes one too talkative.