"Sir: Colonel Forbes' lady; her compliments to Colonel Forbes, and desires to be informed how soon my Colonel will be free to drink a dish of tea with my lady?"

"Pray offer my compliments and profound respect to my lady, Billy, and say that I shall have the honour of drinking a dish of tea with my lady within no more than five amazing minutes!"

And so he salutes and off he goes; and I gather up the sheaf of memoirs I have writ and lock them in my desk against another day.

And so take leave of you, with every kindness, because Penelope should not sit waiting.


[1] Farm overseer.

[2] The Three Patents were Sacandaga, Kayaderosseras, and Stones.

[3] Sachem: the Canienga term.

[4] One of his abandoned brass cannon is—or recently was—lying embedded in a swamp in the North Woods.

[5] The Screech-Owl.