the vandal hands of the British. Zenas stopped the first few and was informed in trembling accents that the enemy were truly gathering on the east bank of the Passaic River for an obvious attack upon Newark.
"And they do say 'tis General Clinton himself who comes to direct this attack," said the old man who had answered the boy's hasty questions. "It be a terrible thing," he went on simply, "to have to leave one's home thus! The old need their own things around them; but we, who live here i' this New Jersey which seems so easy for the enemy to harass and raid—we may return and find all o' our things burned or destroyed or stolen! Three times ha' my daughter and her little ones"—he motioned to the drooping woman upon a horse near by—"and I been forced to flee to the safety o' the Newark Mountains, wi' her husband away fighting!"
"Best haste, then," Zenas told him warningly, "for, an the enemy do come to Newark from Elizabeth Town, they may march by way o' the Second Road and so meet ye, after all!"
"They will not meet us," responded the old man grimly, "for we shall hide i' the underbrush, an we hear marching feet!" But, all the same, he trembled with anxiety as he hastened back to his daughter's side; and it was not long before, leading the horse upon which perched three tow-headed children, with his daughter's horse following—and both Sally
