BY GRACE DENIO LITCHFIELD I am only a plain little daisy-flower, Sprung up at hap-hazard 'neath sunshine and shower, To live out as I may my life's poor little hour, Yet who is so happy as I? Oh, the days they burn hot, and the nights they blow cold, And the shadows and rains,--true they fall, manifold; But my dress is all white, and my heart is pure gold, And who is so happy as I? There's many a gladsomer meadow than mine, Where greener trees shelter and softer suns shine For others than me; but how can I repine, For who is so happy as I? There 's a brook I can't see by that far-away beech, And a bird that wont whistle, for all I beseech, And stars are up yonder, quite out of my reach, But who is so happy as I? I just look up at Fate with my brave little face, I stir from my post in no possible case, And I keep my dress clean, my gold heart in its place, And who is so happy as I? GEORGE WASHINGTON. [_An Historical Biography_.] BY HORACE E. SCUDDER. CHAPTER XVII. AT VALLEY FORGE. The winter of 1777 passed with little fighting; and when the spring opened, Washington used his army so adroitly as to prevent the British from moving on Philadelphia, and finally crowded them out of New Jersey altogether. That summer, however, was an anxious one, for there was great uncertainty as to the plans of the enemy; and when at last a formidable British army appeared in the Chesapeake, whither it had been transported by sea, Washington hurried his forces to meet it, and fought the battle of Brandywine, in which he met with a severe loss. He retrieved his fortune in part by a brilliant attack on the enemy at Germantown, and then retired to Valley Forge, in Pennsylvania, where he went into winter quarters; while the British army was comfortably established in Philadelphia. The defeat of Burgoyne by Gates, at Saratoga, in the summer and Washington's splendid attack at Germantown had made a profound impression in Europe, and are counted as having turned the scale in favor of an alliance with the United States on the part of France. But when the winter shut down on the American army, no such good cheer encouraged it. That winter of 1778 was the most terrible ordeal which the army endured, and one has but to read of the sufferings of the soldiers to learn at how great a cost independence was bought. It is worth while to tell again the familiar story, because the leader of the army himself shared the want and privation of the men. To read of Valley Forge is to read of Washington.