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178
THE ADVENTURES OF


had I, I am sure it would have given me the ague. However agreeable such "twain's becoming one flesh," was in that part of the Union, I was not acquainted with it in that in which I resided.

We went on to Philadelphia, crossed the river Schuylkill on a pontoon bridge, entered the city and took up our abode in the barracks. The Infantry passed on for the Hudson, but the regiments of Artillerists, (Col. Lamb's,) who were at the siege of Yorktown, stopped with us. We staid here several days. The barracks in this city are, or were then, very commodious; they were two stories high, with a gallery their whole length, and an ample parade in front; they were capable of sheltering two or three thousand men. One night, while we were lying here, one of my comrades having occasion to go out, it being very dark, he soon came back in a shocking fright, hardly able to speak; he was asked what was the matter, when, having recovered himself so far as to be able to speak, he said there was a ghost in the gallery. The greater part of the men in the room turned out to see the ghost, a thing often talked of but very rarely seen. We could hardly persuade the man to go out with us, to direct us to the object of his terror; however, we went out, when lo! what should the spirit be but an old white horse, which had walked up the stairs to the gallery, probably in search of something to eat, as, judging by his appearance, he very much needed it, for he had rather a ghostly aspect, but did not seem a very formidable foe.

After staying in Philadelphia about a fortnight, we left the city and proceeded to the city of Burlington, in New-Jersey, twenty miles above Philadelphia, on the Delaware; which place we understood was to be our winter-quarters. We marched about noon, went about ten miles and halted for the night. We took up our lodgings in the houses of the inhabitants; the house where I was quartered seemed to belong to a man well off for this world's goods. We were allowed the kitchen and a comfortable fire, and we happened to have, just then, what a soldier of the revolution valued next to the welfare of his country, and his own honour, that is, something to eat, and being all in good health, and having the prospect of a quiet night's rest; all which comforts happening to us at this time, put us in high spirits. We had