“This is too much,� said Mrs. Markham.
Verney rose, and with two or three mild kicks separated the fighting, laughing tangle of legs and arms.
Then he caught the elder boy by the collar and said: “Stand up on your hind legs, Tom, and tell me what this row is about.�
“He’s got a letter,� said Bill, “a Quaker man, a farmer, left it; and he won’t let us see it till mother reads it.�
“Where is it?� said Verney.
“Here, sir. You’re choking me. You may read it. There’s a message for you.�
Captain Verney looked at the address and read, laughing, “This with haste.�
“With your permission, madam,� he said; then he read aloud:
“Valley Forge, January 7, 1778.
“To Colonel Thomas Markham, Jr., late of Captain Allan McLane’s Company, Continental Line——�