Four months prior to the capture of Duquesne, one thousand boats loaded with soldiers, each with a neat little lunch-basket and a little flag to wave when they hurrahed for the good kind man at the head of the picnic,--viz., General Abercrombie,--sailed down Lake George to get a whiff of fresh air and take Ticonderoga. When they arrived, General Abercrombie took out a small book regarding tactics which he had bought on the boat, and, after refreshing his memory, ordered an assault. He then went back to see how his rear was, and, finding it all right, he went back still farther, to see if no one had been left behind. [Illustration: ABERCROMBIE WENT BACK TO THE REAR.] Abercrombie never forgot or overlooked any one. He wanted all of his pleasure-party to be where they could see the fight. In that way he missed it himself. I would hate to miss a fight that way. The Abercrombies of America mostly trace their ancestry back by a cut-off avoiding the general's line. Niagara had an expedition sent against it at the time of Braddock's trip. The commander was General Shirley, but he ran out of money while at the Falls and decided to return. This post did not finally surrender till 1759. This gave the then West to the English. They had tried for one hundred and forty years to civilize it, but, alas, with only moderate success. Prosperous and happy even while sniping in their fox-hunting or canvas-back-duck clothes, these people feel somewhat soothed for their lack of culture because they are well-to-do. In 1759 General Wolfe anchored off Quebec with his fleet and sent a boy up town to ask if there were any letters for him at the post-office, also asking at what time it would be convenient to evacuate the place. The reply came back from General Montcalm, an able French general, that there was no mail for the general, but if Wolfe was dissatisfied with the report he might run up personally and look over the W's. Wolfe did so, taking his troops up by an unknown cow-path on the off side of the mountain during the night, and at daylight stood in battle-array on the Plains of Abraham. An attack was made by Montcalm as soon as he got over his wonder and surprise. At the third fire Wolfe was fatally wounded, and as he was carried back to the rear he heard some one exclaim,-- "They run! They run!" "Who run?" inquired Wolfe. "The French! The French!" came the reply. "Now God be praised," said Wolfe, "I die happy." Montcalm had a similar experience. He was fatally wounded. "They run! They run!" he heard some one say. "Who run?" exclaimed Montcalm, wetting his lips with a lemonade-glass of cognac. "We do," replied the man. "Then so much the better," said Montcalm, as his eye lighted up, "for I shall not live to see Quebec surrendered." This shows what can be done without a rehearsal; also how the historian has to control himself in order to avoid lying.