We have been three days soaking and poaching in the heaviest rain that has been known for several years, and what adds to the gloom is the uncertainty in which we remain to this moment concerning the fate of Gates and Burgoyne. We are out of patience. It is impossible to bear this suspense with any temper. I am in comfortable lodgings, which is a felicity that has fallen to the lot of a very few of our members. Yet the house where I am is so thronged that I cannot enjoy such accommodations as I wish. I cannot have a room as I used, and therefore cannot find opportunities to write as I once did. The people of this country are chiefly Germans, who have schools in their own language, as well as prayers, psalms, and sermons, so that multitudes are born, grow up, and die here, without ever learning the English. In politics they are a breed of mongrels or neutrals, and benumbed with a general torpor. If the people in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, and Jersey had the feelings and the spirit of some people that I know, Howe would be soon ensnared in a trap more fatal than that in which, as it is said, Burgoyne was taken. Howe is completely in our power, and if he is not totally ruined it will be entirely owing to the awkwardness and indolence of this country. Fighting, however, begins to become fashionable. Colonel Greene has exhibited a glorious example in the defense of Red Bank. But this must be done by a New England man at the head of two New England regiments, Rhode Islanders. Colonel Smith, however, is a Marylander from Baltimore. He has shown another example of magnanimity which gives me the most agreeable hopes. Commodore Hazelwood, too, has behaved in a manner that exceeds all praise. This spirit will be caught by other officers, for bravery is epidemical and contagious as the plague. This army suffers much for want of blankets and shoes. I celebrated the 25th of this month in my own mind and heart much more than I shall the 30th,[184] because I think the first a more fortunate day than the last. My duty to your father and my mother, to uncles and aunts. Love to brothers and sisters; but above all, present all the affection that words can express to our dear babes. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 184: The one his wedding day, the other his birthday.] 224. ABIGAIL ADAMS. 16 November, 1777. In a letter which came to me to-night you chide yourself for neglecting to write so frequently as you had done. 'T is true a very long space of near a fortnight passed without hearing one word from you. I cannot help feeling anxious when such a space elapses without receiving a line, but I have no reason to complain. You have, considering your avocations, been more attentive than I had reason to expect. "Heaven sure taught letters for some wretch's aid, Some banished lover or some captive maid."