“CAN I BE OF ANY ASSISTANCE?”

In “Peggy Owen,” the preceding book ofthe series, the heroine, a little Quaker maid,lives across from the State House in Philadelphia.By reason of this she becomes muchinterested in the movements of the ContinentalCongress, and when her father, in spiteof his religion, takes up arms for the Whigsshe too becomes an ardent patriot. WhileDavid Owen is with the army before Boston,Peggy and her mother find a kinsman ofhis—William Owen, a colonel in the Englisharmy—a prisoner in the city’s new jail.

They succeed in having him released onparole, and take him into their home, wherehe requites their kindness by selfishness andarrogance, even killing Peggy’s pet dog, Pilot.He is exchanged at length, but before leavinghe brings one James Molesworth to the house,claiming that he does not like to leave themunprotected. This man Peggy discovers to bea spy.

Upon the advance of the British towardPhiladelphia Peggy and her mother go totheir farm on the banks of the Wissahickon.Here they are almost denuded of supplies byforagers, one party of which is headed bytheir own kinsman, Colonel Owen. Americantroopers arrive, and a sharp skirmishtakes place, in which Colonel Owen iswounded. While caring for him word isreceived that David Owen is a prisoner inPhiladelphia, and ill of a fever. GeneralHowe proposes to have him exchanged forone Thomas Shale, and Peggy rides to ValleyForge to secure the consent of General Washington.Owing to the fact that the man is aspy and a deserter the exchange cannot takeplace, and, in a blaze of anger at finding hercousin so comfortable while her own fatherlies ill, Peggy denounces him, and forces himto accede to the proposal that he be exchangedfor her father. The book closes with the evacuationof Philadelphia by the British.

The present volume shows the Owens atWashington’s camp in northern New Jersey.Peggy’s further adventures are continued in“Peggy Owen at Yorktown” and “Peggy Owenand Liberty.”