“Quit this,” demanded Grant. “We’re going into the old house and you will have to behave yourselves.”
The visit proved to be most interesting. Many articles that had been used when Washington was living in the house and many more which had been contributed were on exhibition. Indeed, as the boys passed from room to room they became more subdued in their manner, for somehow the knowledge that they were looking upon the same sights that had greeted the great commander had produced a marked effect. Even the old cannon on the lawn and the piles of cannon balls had stories of their own.
The silence, however, was broken when the boys resumed their seats in the automobile.
“I wonder why Washington stayed so far away from his army,” suggested John.
“He had a body guard here all the time,” explained Grant. “There were about two hundred and fifty men stationed here. They used to call them the life guard.”
“What did they do?” inquired Fred.
“It was a special guard to protect General Washington. You see the red coats and Hessians, as I told you, tried a good many times to catch Washington asleep. Sometimes they crossed over from Staten Island and came up through Springfield, trying to catch the ‘old fox’ off his guard. But the people all through the country knew just what to do. They had guns or little cannon mounted on several of the hills and whenever word came that the redcoats were coming the boys fired one cannon and that would be heard by other people and the guns on the other hills would be fired too so that the soldiers at Morristown knew long before the British could arrive that they were trying to advance.”
“But they never got him,” said Fred gleefully.
“It wasn’t because they didn’t try hard enough,” laughed George. “My grandfather used to tell me that when the soldiers at Morristown heard the ‘old sow,’ which was the name of one of the guns, they understood right away that there was danger of an attack. Everything in the old house was shut up except the windows, and then five of the continentals took their stand at every window and were ready to fire upon any one that came near the place.”
“I would like to have seen Washington,” said John thoughtfully.