“I don’t want it to begin with ‘Once on a time,’� said Harry, now quite at home. “They always begin that way. The Count told us a story on Christmas Eve about an angel and it turned out that it wasn’t a real one after all.�
“That was terrible,� said the Captain. “My story is true. Now and then I go into Philadelphia to see the troops and where they are.�
“But isn’t that dangerous?� asked Tom, who knew well what was the fate of a spy.
“Well, rather. I should be hanged if I were caught, but you see they don’t catch me. Two days ago I rode with a trooper to a deserted barn, and there I put on a Quaker bonnet, and old woman’s clothes and shoes and horn spectacles and with a crutch and a basket of eggs I got of a farmer, I walked down Lancaster Pike and hobbled over the floating bridge.
“Any one with provisions can get in and have a pass to get out and I have been in town several times and am pretty well known as Mrs. Price. I sold my eggs, some of them to Sir William Howe’s cook. Then I went to your house.�
“Oh, and you saw mother?� cried Harry.
“Shut up,� said Bill; “I want to hear.�
“When I came to your house, I went to the back gate and was let in by a black cook——�
“That’s Nancy,� said Bill.
“I said I had eggs for sale. Then she took me to the hall and I sat down. There I saw that red-nosed Colonel come in. I was knitting a stocking and was pretty busy, with my spectacles on. Your mother asked the price of my eggs and where I lived. When the Colonel heard I lived near Valley Forge and had had a lift on a farmer’s cart to get to town, he asked about the troops here. I told him some fine yarns, and with this he went away. I should like to catch him and swap him off for your father.�