immediately furnished with rations of good and wholesome beef and flour, built us up some births to sleep in, and filled them with straw, and felt as happy as any other pigs that were no better off than ourselves. And now having got into winter-quarters, and ready to commence our foraging business, I shall here end my account of my second campaign.
CHAPTER IV.
Campaign of 1778.
A serene and cloudless atmosphere
Betokens that a storm is near;
So when dame Fortune proves most kind,—
Be sure, Miss-Fortune's close behind.
As there was no cessation of duty in the army, I must commence another campaign as soon as the succeeding one is ended. There was no going home and spending the winter season among friends, and procuring a new recruit of strength and spirits. No—it was one constant drill, summer and winter, like an old horse in a mill, it was a continual routine.
The first expedition I undertook in my new vocation, was a foraging cruise. I was ordered off into the country in a party consisting of a corporal and six men. What our success was I do not now remember; but I well remember the transactions of the party in the latter part of the journey. We were returning to our quarters on christmas afternoon, when we met three ladies, one a young married woman with an infant in her arms, the other two were maidens, for aught I knew then or since, they passed for such. They were all comely, particularly one of them; she was handsome. They immediately fell into familiar discourse with us—were very inquisitive like the rest of the sex;—asked us a thousand questions respecting our business, where we had been and where going, &c. After we had satisfied their curiosity, or at least had endeavored to do so, they told us that they (that is, the two youngest) lived a little way on our road in a house which they described: desired us to call in and rest ourselves a few minutes, and said they
