Rain it did very quickly; but from post to post the horsemen passed, the sternly silent commander speaking only when giving the necessary orders to remedy so far as possible the disaster of the afternoon. Not till eleven, and then in a thoroughly drenched condition, did they reach the Morris House on Haarlem Heights. It was to no rest, however, that the general arrived; for, as he dismounted, Major Gibbs of his life guards informed him that the council of war he had called was gathered, and only awaited his attendance. "Get you some supper, gentlemen," he ordered, to such of his aides as were still of the party, "for 'tis likely that you will have more riding when the council have deliberated." "'Tis advice he might take himself to proper advantage," said one of the juniors, while they were stripping off their wet coverings in a side room. "Ay," asserted Brereton. "The general uses us hard, Tilghman, but he uses himself harder." Then aloud he called, "Billy!" "Yis, sah!" "Make a glass of rum punch and take it in to his Excellency." "Foh de Lord, sah, I doan dar go in, an' yar know marse neber drink no spirits till de day's work dun." "Make a dish of tea, then, you old coward, and I'll take it to him so soon as I get these slops off me. 'Fore George! How small-clothes stick when they're wet!" The make-shift meal was still unfinished when the general's body-servant appeared with the tea. Taking it, Brereton marched boldly to the council door, and, giving a knock, he went in without awaiting a reply. The group of anxious-faced men about the table looked up, and Washington, with a frown, demanded, "For what do you interrupt us, sir?" The young officer put the tea down on the map lying in front of the general. "Billy didn't dare take this to your Excellency, so I made bold to e'en bring it myself." "This is no time for tea, Colonel Brereton." "'Tis no time for the army to lose their general," replied the aide. "I pray you drink it, sir, for our sake, if you won't for your own." A kindly look supplanted the sternness of the previous moment on the general's face. "I thank you for your thoughtfulness, Brereton," he said, raising the cup and pouring some of the steaming drink into the saucer. FOOTNOTES: [26] From "Janice Meredith." Dodd, Mead & Co. X SELECTIONS FROM WASHINGTON'S SPEECHES AND WRITINGS SELECTIONS FROM THE RULES OF CIVILITY [Copied by Washington at the age of fourteen from an old translation of a French book of 1595. "Washington was entirely aware," writes Owen Wister, "of the great influence for good exerted upon his own character by the Rules of Civility. It is a misfortune for all American boys in all our schools to-day, that they should be told the untrue and foolish story of the hatchet and the cherry tree, and denied the immense benefit of instruction from George Washington's authentic copy-book."]