concentrated force; and, unless tradition does great injustice to their
exploits, the result did no little credit to their foresight. The
corps--we presume, from their known affection to that useful animal--had
received the quaint appellation of "Cowboys."

Caesar was, however, far too loyal to associate men who held the
commission of George III, with the irregular warriors, whose excesses
he had so often witnessed, and from whose rapacity, neither his poverty
nor his bondage had suffered even him to escape uninjured. The Cowboys,
therefore, did not receive their proper portion of the black's censure,
when he said, no Christian, nothing but a "Skinner," could betray a
pious child, while honoring his father with a visit so full of peril.




CHAPTER II


And many a halcyon day he lived to see
Unbroken, but by one misfortune dire,
When fate had reft his mutual heart--but she
Was gone-and Gertrude climbed a widowed father's knee.
--Gertrude of Wyoming.

The father of Mr. Wharton was a native of England, and of a family whose
parliamentary interest had enabled them to provide for a younger son in
the colony of New York. The young man, like hundreds of others in this
situation, had settled permanently in the country. He married; and the
sole issue of his connection had been sent early in life to receive the