The tall green tree its shadow cast Upon Howe's army that southward passed From Gordon's Ford to the Quaker town, Intending in quarters to settle down Till snows were gone, and spring again Should easier make a new campaign.
Beyond the fences that lined the way, The fields of Captain Richardson lay; His woodland and meadows reached far and wide, From the hills behind to the Schuylkill's side, Across the stream, in the mountain gorge, He could see the smoke of the valley forge.
The Captain had fought in the frontier war; When the fight was done, bearing seam and scar, He marched back home to tread once more The same tame round he had trod before, And turn his thoughts with sighs of regret To his ploughshares, wishing them sword-blades yet.
He put the meadow in corn that year, And swore till his blacks were white with fear. He plowed, and planted, and married a wife, But life grew weary with inward strife. His blood was hot and his throbbing brain Beat with the surf of some far main.
Should he sack a town, or rob the mail, Or on the wide seas a pirate sail? He pondered it over, concluding instead, To buy three steeds in Arabia bred, On Sopus, Fearnaught, or Scipio, He felt his blood more evenly flow.
To his daughter Tacey, the coming days Brought health, and beauty, and graceful ways. He taught her to ride his fleetest steed At a five-barred fence, or a ditch at need, And the Captain's horses, his hounds, and his child Were famous from sea to forests wild.
*....*....*....*
Master and man from home were gone, And Fearnaught held the stables alone, And Mistress Tacey her spirit showed The morning the British came down the road. She hid the silver, and drove the cows To the island behind the willow boughs.
Was time too short? or did she forget That Fearnaught stood in the stables yet? Across the fields to the gate she ran, And followed the path 'neath the grape-arbors' span; On the doorstep she paused and turned to see The head of the line beneath the green tree.
The last straggler passed, the night came on, And then 'twas discovered that Fearnaught was gone; Sometime, somehow, from his stall he was led, Where an old gray horse was left in his stead, And Tacey must prove to her father that she Had been prepared for the emergency.