as it looked. We got, I think, two days allowance of it, and some sort of bread kind, I suppose, for I do not remember particularly about that, but it is probable we
did. We were then divided into several parties and sent
off upon our expedition. Our party consisted of a Lieutenant, a Sergeant, a Corporal and eighteen privates.
We marched till night when we halted and took up our quarters at a large farm-house. The Lieutenant, attended by his waiter, took up his quarters for the night in the hall with the people of the house, we were put into the kitchen; we had a snug room and a comfortable fire, and we began to think about cooking some of our fat beef; one of the men proposed to the landlady to sell her a shirt for some sauce; she very readily took the shirt, which was worth a dollar at least,—she might have given us a mess of sauce, for I think she would not have
suffered poverty by so doing, as she seemed to have a
a plenty of all things. After we had received the sauce, we went to work to cook our suppers. By the time
it was eatable the family had gone to rest; we saw
where the woman went into the cellar, and, she having
left us a candle, we took it into our heads that a little
good cider would not make our supper relish any the worse; so some of the men took the water pail and drew
it full of excellent cider, which did not fail to raise our spirits considerably. Before we lay down the man who
sold the shirt, having observed that the landlady had flung it into a closet, took a notion to repossess it again. We marched off early in the morning before the people of the house were stirring, consequently did not know or see the woman's chagrine at having been overreached by the soldiers.
This day we arrived at Milltown, or Downingstown, a small village half way between Philadelphia and Lancaster, which was to be our quarters for the winter. It was dark when we had finished our day's march. There was a commissary and a wagon-master-general stationed here, the commissary to take into custody the provisions and forage that we collected, and the wagon-master-general to regulate the conduct of the wagoners and direct their motions. The next day after our arrival at this place we were put into a small house in which was only one room, in the centre of the village. We were
