had his men in position ready to meet an attack should the British take the alarm. But the men worked through the night at Dorchester Neck without interruption, and the British looked out at daybreak to see the American entrenchments frowning upon them. Their dismay

was complete. It seemed almost as if Aladdin with his magic lamp must have come true.

General Howe Howe said it must have taken twelve thousand men to do the work; that his entire army could not have done in a month so much as the Americans had achieved in a single night. General Washington's highest expectations were realized. These raw country boys had shown their general that they could work with a will when real business was afoot.

He half expected an advance from the British, but a storm prevented such a step on the enemy's part, and General Washington made good use of the time thereby to push on the work of entrenchment, and made the fortifications so strong that the British gave up hope of storming them. An occasional shell from General Washington's guns soon warned the

British commander that to

save his men from total destruction he must make a hasty departure.

Accordingly, on the 17th of March, the hated red-coats left the crooked streets of Boston. This brought general rejoicing to the colonies; and General Washington's wisdom and generalship were the theme of the hour. Those who had criticised him most severely were now ready with congratulations and well-deserved praise.

He

No one knew better than General Washington how great was the work he had done. summed up his winter's achievement in this telling sentence: "To maintain a post within musket-shot of the enemy for six months together, without powder, and at the same time to disband one army and recruit another within that distance of twenty-odd British regiments, is more, probably, than was ever attempted before."

But he did not rest on his laurels. He knew that the war was not over; and began hurrying troops to New York. That city was the strong

hold of the Tory interest in the north, and he rightly conjectured that it would be the objective point of General Howe when he returned with a fresh force. Here he had to do again much the same work that he had done at Cambridge.

There was this added difficulty that New York was full of British sympathizers who did everything in their power to annoy and handicap the Americans. General Washington regarded the Tories as traitors and treated them with severity.

The long winter's experience, the restlessness and insolence of the British, and their cruelty to American prisoners of war, had convinced him that there could be no permanent healing of the breach between the colonies and England. The hatred had become too deep and bitter, the wrongs too grievous to be forgiven or forgotten.

He saw quite clearly that the war had best be fought to the end and that the issue was not one of the right of exemption from taxation, but of absolute independence. When he was called to Philadelphia by Congress to give his

opinion concerning the management of the Indians during the war, a campaign against Canada, and the treatment of prisoners of war, he did his best to make Congress see that, while these were important questions, the question of the end for which they were fighting was the most important of all.

It was with solemn joy that he welcomed the Declaration of Independence and read it to his assembled troops, amidst great rejoicing.

CHAPTER IX.

THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE.

THE Americans were still rejoicing over the Declaration of Independence, when General Howe appeared with a large force, and, sailing up the Hudson, landed his troops on Staten Island. One of his first acts was to send to General Washington a letter addressed to George Washington, Esq."

Now General Washington had no disposition to see one of the foremost representatives of the new government treated without full respect, so he promptly returned the letter with the reply that there was no person of that address in the army. As General Howe had been instructed not to recognize the American commander-in-chief by his title, this put an end to communication between them.

Congress thanked General Washington for his conduct on this occasion and refused to