I wish to inform you also that Master Benjamin Hardy and his chief clerk, Jonathan Pillsbury, have arrived from New York on the fast packet, _River Queen_, and even now they are depositing their baggage at the George Inn, where they are expecting to stay." Master Jacobus who had been silent while the schoolmaster talked, awoke suddenly to life.
"At the George Inn!" he exclaimed.

"It iss a good inn, good enough for anybody, but when friends of mine come to Albany they stay with me or I take offense.

Bide here, my friends, and I will go for them.

Alexander, sit with the lads and partake of refreshment while I am gone." He hastened from the room and Master McLean, upon being urged, joined Robert and Tayoga at the table, where he showed that he too was a good man at the board, thinness being no bar to appetite and capacity.

As he ate he asked the boys many questions, and they, knowing well his kindly heart under his crusty manner, answered them all readily and freely.
Elderly and bookish though he was, his heart throbbed at the tale of the great perils through which they had gone, and his face darkened when Robert told anew the story of Ticonderoga.
"It is our greatest defeat so far," he said, "and I hope our misfortunes came to a climax there.