"
"He has a knapsack--it is probably a soldier," returned the other. "Let
us meet him at the ladder, Mason, and learn his tidings."
Some time was expended in reaching the spot where the adventurer was
intercepted. Contrary to the expectations of the young soldiers, he
proved to be a man far advanced in life, and evidently no follower of
the camp. His years might be seventy, and they were indicated more by
the thin hairs of silver that lay scattered over his wrinkled brow, than
by any apparent failure of his system. His frame was meager and bent;
but it was the attitude of habit, for his sinews were strung with the
toil of half a century. His dress was mean, and manifested the economy
of its owner, by the number and nature of its repairs. On his back was a
scantily furnished pack, that had led to the mistake in his profession.
A few words of salutation, and, on the part of the young men, of
surprise, that one so aged should venture so near the whirlpools of the
cataract, were exchanged; when the old man inquired, with a voice that
began to manifest the tremor of age, the news from the contending
armies.
"We whipped the redcoats here the other day, among the grass on the
Chippewa plains," said the one who was called Mason; "since when, we
have been playing hide and go seek with the ships: but we are now
marching back from where we started, shaking our heads, and as surly as
the devil.
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