CHAPTER II.

Military life of Mr. Pratt. — A volunteer in the war of 1812. Stationed at Brooklyn Heights. - Interview with the commissary. Retires from service. -Appointed captain of a company. - Liberality as an officer. - Commissioned colonel. Escorts Lafayette into Catskill. Skill in the use of arms.

MR. PRATT was no favored heir of fortune. He had received no heritage but a birth under the dominion of necessity; and the only smiles which had gladdened his life were those which were bestowed by nature, as the almost trackless forest, with its desolating terrors, gave place to the cultivated fields.

His very home even was the price of his energies and his sacrifices. He had purchased his freedom, his security, and his competency, by vigorous conflict with dangers and privations; and would he be the man to falter when the hour for their defence arrived? Would he, who was familiar with the story of the cruelties and the sufferings which were heaped upon the kindest of fathers, be likely to forget that father when the same foeman came to desecrate that land which was rendered sacred by his trials and sacrifices? We shall see.

However foreign to his mind, when he first commenced business, may have been all idea of the extensive intercourse which in his mature life he was to have with the world, he was accustomed to watch the growing energies

of the young nation, and proudly to participate in the common feeling of wonder and admiration, as the new and almost limitless fields for prosperous enterprise opened, as if by the power of magic.

Though all saw and acknowledged the obvious indications of increasing American power, courage and pride, yet none could fail to see that Great Britain was slow to render that prompt consideration and justice which equals concede to equals, as due alike to honor and interest. The parent yields slowly to the child. Age presumes upon youth, and strength upon weakness. It became evident, to all unprejudiced observers, that England supposed she could pursue her career of insult and wrong towards the United States with an impunity that would prove neither a tax upon her treasury nor a stain upon her pride. But in this she was soon called upon to witness a practical demonstration of her own great errors.

Mr. Pratt heard the war of 1812 proclaimed with a deep and lively interest; and saw his country forced to choose between a dishonorable, slavish existence, and all the terrific adventures of a bloody contest. It must either surrender those laurels which were beginning to speak so significantly and proudly of the nobility of human freedom, or they must once more come forward, and stake their lives and their homes in defence of them.

Mr. Pratt was at this time in the full tide of his early success in business; but he was the son of a revolution

ary patriot, and should he refuse to lend a hand to aid in completing that work, in the commencement of which his father had so nobly perilled his life? Just previous to the threatened attack upon New York, his name was enrolled as a soldier; and he was soon after called into service, and stationed at Brooklyn Heights, with a view to the defence of New York.

His active business talent and energetic bearing soon made him conspicuous in his company, and he was appointed its steward,-on many accounts a most important office. His whole soul being devoted to the pursuit of high purposes, he had not expected to be brought into contact with an enemy, excepting those against whom he had been called to defend the city. He soon, however, found, in discharging the duties of his new office, that it was possible for those who unworthily held high places among the professed friends of the country, to avail themselves of the distresses and emergencies of that country, and the rigid discipline of the camp, to which the soldiery of all classes submitted in the noblest spirit of self-sacrifice, to increase their own emoluments and personal gains. They would preserve just enough of patriotism to crowd themselves into the furthest outskirts of the war, in the shape of officers of public trust, but away from danger and hardship; and there they would hang, like harpies, over the always too scanty repast spread for the common soldier, to rob or to pillage, as occasion or opportunity might offer.

One of these Mr. Pratt met, in the commissary of

The

whom he was accustomed to receive the supplies for his company. He soon ascertained that the commissary uniformly made very considerable curtailment in the allowance which belonged to each soldier by the regulations of the army. This was enough to excite not merely the indignation, but all the energy, of Mr. Pratt's character. He knew the right, and there was nothing in the sternness or austerity of military command that could overawe his purpose to pursue it; and he resolved that the injustice done to his company should proceed no further. Accordingly, when he went to receive his next supply, he selected six of the best soldiers to accompany him, and demanded the full, lawful allowance. commissary, surprised and vexed at what he considered. the young steward's impertinence, and mistaking the character of the man with whom he was dealing, commanded him "to take what he had, and be off." But young Pratt was firm; and, in a tone as decided as that of the commissary, replied, with a true military bend of the body, "All or none! The soldier shall not be cheated while I am steward!" This was sufficient: for, although the commissary might command obedience, and was burning with rage to do so, still he saw it was not prudent to enforce it with a young man who was so fully conscious of his rights, so well advised as to the law, and so discreetly resolute in its due execution. He could not retract without disgrace; he could not yield and preserve his power. He had no alternative but to submit, and bend the circumstances of the case to relieve his