The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1873-12-20
VALLEY FORGE.
A STORY OF THE REVOLUTION
BY GEORGE LIPPARD.

Hidden away there In deep glen,
not many miles from Valley Forge, a
quaint old farm house rose darkly over
q wide waste of SHOW.
1t was cold, dark winter, and the
snow began to fall, while from the
broad Fireplace Of the old farm house
the cheerful blaze of massive logs
flashed around wide and spacious
room. t.
Two persons sat there by the fire, q
father and child. The father. who sits
yonder, with soldiers belt thrown
over his farmers dress, is man OF
some fifty years, his eyes blood-shot,
his hair changed to an untimely gray,
his face wrinklpd and followed by care,
and by dissipation more than care.
And the daughter, who sits in the
full light of the blaze opposite her
father-a slenderly formed girl of some
seventeen years, clad in the coarse
linsey skirt and kerchief which made
up the costume of q farmers daughter
IN the days of the Revolution.
She Is not beautiful 4; ah no
Care, perhaps that disease, cOnsump-
tiOn, which makes the heart grow cold
to name, has been busy with that
young face, shai pened It's outlines and
stamped it with deadly paleDess.
There Is no bloom on that young
cheek. The brown hair Is laid plainly
aside from her pale brow. Then tell
me what is it you see when you gaze in
her face? Y.4..
You look at that young girl and see
nothing but the girain of two large
dark eyes that burn into your soul.
Yes, those eyes are unnaturally
large and dark and bright; perhaps
consumption is feeding their flame.
And now, then, as the father sits
there so moody and sullen, or the
daughter sits yonder so sad and silent
and pale, tell me-, play you, the story
of their lives. -
peaceful, happy man, before the RevO-
luton. Since the war he has become
drunken and idle; driven his wife
broken hearted to the grave, and, worse
than all, Joined band Of Tory refu-
gees, who scOur the land at dead of
night, burning and numbering as they
80. .'.i..-
TO.night, at the hour of two, this
Tory band will lie in wait in neigh
boring pass, to attack and murder the
rebel Washington, whose starving SOL
diers are yonder in the huts of Valley
Forge.
Washington, on his lonely journeys,
Is wont to pass this farm house the
cut-throats are there in the next chaul-
ber, drinking and feasting as they wait
for two O'Clock at night. .,
And the daughter Mary-for her
name was Mary; they loved that name
In the good old times-what is the story
of her orief young life? lat au.
She had been reared by her mother,
now dead and gone home, to revere
this man Washington, who tonight
will be attacked and murdered; to re-
we're him next to God. Nay, more,
that mother, on her death bed, jolnetl
the hams of this daught, r, IN solemn
betrOthai, with the hands of a young
partisan leader, Henry Williams, who
now shares the crust and the cold at
Valley Forge. .-..-, ...r
Well may that maiden's eye flash
with unnatural brightness, well may
her pale face gather a single burning
flush In the centre of each cheek.
For yesterday afternoon, she went
four miles over roads of ice aid snow,
to tell Captain Williams the plot of The
refugees. She did not reach Valley
Forge until Washington had left on
one of his lonely journeys SO this
night, at twelve, the partisan captain
will occupy the rocks above the neigh
boring pass TO trap the trappers OF
George Washington. l .''
Yes, that pale, slender girl, remem-
bering the words of her dying mother,
had broken through her obedience to
her father, after long and bitter strug
gle. How dark that struggle in q
faithful daughters heart She had be-
trayed his plot to his enemies, stipula-
ting first for the life and safety of her
traitor father.
And now, as father and child are sit
ting there, the shouts OF the tory refu-
gees echo from the next chamber as
the hand of the old clock ls ON the hour
| of eleven haTk, there Is sound OF
horses hOOfs without the farm house
there is pause the door opens a tall
stranger wrapped in thick cloak
| white as snow enters, advances
to the FIRE, and In brief words sOllcits
some refreshments and an hours re-
pose.
Why does the tory Manheim start
aghast at the sight Of the stranger
blue aud gold uniform. Then numb
nng something 10 his daughter about