"Well, 'tis a pity you are in such bad employ, for you have an uncommon good heart and a face that matches it. When General Washington hath licked the boots off you fellows, come down south and pay me a visit. My mother'll be so grateful for every kind word you have spoken to me, that she'll feed you on good cookery until you are as fat as a Michaelmas goose." "I'll come," the other laughed, "but I'll wear my boots; it will be you fellows who will go barefooted from a licking." "Don't wager your birthright on that; you'd lose even the mess of pottage." Under the relief the dressing of his wound afforded, Richard fell asleep, and his dreams must have been comforting, for on his face was a smile of happiness, and the words he murmured made the corporal of the guard laugh to himself as he trod to and fro before the open tent. "Have you a favourite dog named Joscelyn?" he asked teasingly, when he roused Richard for supper. "No." "A horse, then?" Richard looked at him questioningly, half-inclined to be angry. "You have been talking in your sleep." "Joscelyn is not a dog nor a horse; she is my sweetheart." "Mine's named Margie." There was a moment of silence during which the two young fellows felt almost akin with friendly sympathy. They longed to shake hands and tell each other their love tales. "Margie's eyes are black," said Colborn softly. "Joscelyn has sea-blue eyes." "I like black ones better." "I'd love Joscelyn's eyes, were they as vari-coloured as Joseph's coat." "Well said." The speaker thrust his hand into his shirt and drew out a metal case which contained a picture of a buxom English girl. "It took a whole month's pay to have that made, but I wasn't coming to America without bringing a likeness of her to look at. When I am promoted to a captaincy I shall have it set in gold and brilliants. She is counting the months until I go back to her," he continued with a burst of confidence, while his honest face flamed with a boyish blush. "For every week I am away, she drops a pebble into a china jar I gave her, that I may count the kisses she shall owe me when we meet. Never you doubt but I shall cheat in the count, though I have to carry back a pocketful of American pebbles to help me out!" Then, by way of prelude to that coming happiness, he kissed the picture with eager frankness before returning it to the case, saying there were already twelve pebbles in the jar. Many times during the few days when the army lay encamped upon the sandy reaches of the Hook did Richard have occasion to be grateful to the young corporal for little acts of kindness, and in return he told him something of his own life, so that a curious friendship was formed between the two; and when the embarkation finally came, Richard was glad to find that the same guard and officers would have the prisoners in charge until the dreaded doors of the jail should close upon them.