At first the stories were of encounters with the red men of the woods, then revolutionary scenes were recalled.
"Major," exclaimed the captain, "do you remember your big Hessian?"
"Yes, perfectly: that is, his general appearance; he was not near enough for his features to be very strongly impressed upon my memory."
"And he has never appeared to you?" queried the captain with a laugh.
"No," returned the major, gazing meditatively into the fire; "what right would he have to haunt me, captain, seeing he was killed in battle?"
"None, of course; and he shows his sense of justice in refraining."
"What were the circumstances?" inquired Kenneth, with interest which seemed to be shared by all present.
"It was on one occasion when our forces and those of the British were drawn up in line of battle in full view of each other," said the captain, "that a big Hessian officer stepped out in front of his men and with a good deal of angry, excited gesticulation and loud vociferation in his barbarous tongue, seemed to be defying the American army much as Goliath defied the armies of Israel.
"The impudence and effrontery of the thing roused my ire; I turned with an indignant remark to the major here, he was only captain then, by the way, but before the words had left my lips he had taken a gun from a soldier and shot the fellow down where he stood."
"Some of those Hessians were very brutal," remarked Kenneth.