WAS it not a dreadful pity that Benedict Arnold should disgrace himself forever by becoming a traitor to his country? To think of his making himself the most despised of all Americans, when, if he had been true to his flag, he might have been ranked among our greatest heroes. For Arnold was one of the best and bravest fighters in Washington's army. And he could fight as hard and well on water as on land, as you will learn when you read of what he did on Lake Champlain. I am sure all my readers must know where this lake is, and how it stretches down in a long line from Canada far into New York State. Below Lake Champlain extends Lake George, and not very far from that is the Hudson River, which flows down to the City of New York. If the British could only have held that line of water they would have cut the colonies in two, and in that way they might soon have brought the war to an end. This was what they tried to do in the fall of 1776, but they did not count on Arnold and his men. Let us tell what brought this about. General Arnold and General Montgomery had marched through the wilderness to Quebec in the winter before. But there they met with bitter weather and deadly disease and death from cold and cannon. The brave Montgomery was killed, the daring Arnold fought in vain, and in the end the invading army was forced to march back--all that was left of it. As the Americans went back, Sir Guy Carleton, the British commander, followed, and made his camp at St. John's, at the north end of Lake Champlain. The nearest American post was at Crown Point, far down towards the foot of the lake. Not far south of this, near the head of Lake George, was the famous old French fort Ticonderoga, which Arnold and Ethan Allen had captured from the British the year before. I tell you all this that you may know how the land lay. A glance at a good map will help. I think it very likely that some of you may have visited those beautiful lakes, and seen the towns and villages on their shores, the handsome dwelling on their islands, and the broad roads along their banks; everything gay and smiling. If you had been there in 1776 you would have seen a very different sight. Look right or left, east or west, nothing but a wilderness of trees would have met your eyes. As for roads, I fancy an Indian trail would have been the best to be found. And no man that wished to keep his scalp on his head would have thought of living on island or shore. The only good road southward was the liquid one made by nature, and this road Carleton decided to take. He would build a strong fleet and carry his army down the lake, while the Indians that came with him could paddle downward in their canoes.