In January, 1813, an American force marched two hundred miles through a wilderness to retake Detroit. They were defeated, and Proctor, the English general, was unable to keep his savage allies from butchering many of the prisoners who had surrendered to him. All over the States this caused justly bitter feeling. Forty dollars was offered for the scalp of any Indian fighting in the British ranks. "Don't speak of that at home," Archy told Ned. "Women folks are awful easy scared, and it'll hit your pa." For the English, to keep their Indian subjects under better control, had given Indian military rank to the white men, who like Edgar, had been elected sub-chiefs. * * * Ned found Susie interested in other things than war, when he went home that March evening. "General Sheaffe is back, Ned," she exclaimed, "with Bee and her grandfather, and two companies of regulars. There's going to be the ball of the season at the Palace, and I must find out if the fashions have changed much." "They always change the same way, Sue," said Edgar, "less dress and more bonnet. It's Bonaparte's wife that starts them, and if I were he I'd suggest that she tie her dress round her head, and dress the rest of herself in her bonnet, for a change." Then a small whirlwind, and Bee was in the House, in Susie's arms, laughing and exclaiming over the little boys, and Edgar welcoming his old friend, Dr. Tam. The surgeon handed Ned a letter. "From your Methodist friend, Ferguson," he said, and Ned hid himself in the lofts above the store, to read it without interruption. "After you left us," Ferguson wrote, "we were ordered to St. Johns, near Montreal. We had to leave our families behind and had a severe and tedious march. The country and people and almost everything seemed strange, and not one of those I travelled with knew Canaan's language. But blessed be God, though I was a stranger and a pilgrim marching through the 'enchanted ground', I could now and then snatch a cluster of pleasant grapes, and see the end of my toils. "On February 3, we marched to the Isle of Maux on Lake Champlain, where there has been some skirmishing with the enemy." Ferguson went on with many quotations from his only reading--the Bible, Hymn Book, and John Bunyan, going rather fully into his examination of his own conscience, as to how a man could be a soldier and yet "love his enemies". "I need to consult the Divine Oracle daily," he wrote, "for it is the soul's geography, which will show me the path I must needs take." As Ned finished the letter, he saw his father and Dr. Tam come up into the next room which Edgar had fitted up as a "den", and sit down to drink together. "Come in, and take your glass with us," ordered the half-tipsy Edgar, as Ned tried to pass the door unseen.