Valley Forge

Chapter XI

January 4th, 1779.

My chest ached in worry, why was he promoted. Questions kept running through my head I didn't sleep that night, Making me groggily in the morning, causing my work quality and ethics to suffer.  Burns kept a watchful eye on my movements, looking for any excuse to report, or punish me. I stayed alert to the point of exhaustion, waiting for the blow to fall or disaster to strike. I took care to act the model soldier-never late for duties or shirking my share of the work. Aaron Barry did not speak to me. He just stared. 

Benny sensed the threat and roused from his melancholy to become my shadow again. He never let me walk alone, which was as comforting as annoying.  and cautioned me constantly to guard my temper and my tongue.

But Barry did nothing

He did not single me out, or spread falsehoods about me, or manufactured an excuse to send me to the guardhouse in shackles. In fact other than that staring, his actions for the next fortnight were exemplary. He continued our democratic habit of rotating the duties of the company he secured an

"Huzzah!" I called. "We have a roof over our heads and theatrical entertainment"

Benny laughed "Just like country squires, we are! Taking our case to a mansion the King would envy!"

"Hardley," Henry Barry dipped his mug into the pot of hot water at the edge of the fire "More like a mess of bear cubs in a den"

"That's it!" Shouted Edwards he crawled off his bunk and carried his small box of charcoal bits to the fire

"That's What?" Henry Barry replied

"I've been trying to figure how I could draw our likenesses" Edwards tested a piece of charcoal against a chimney stone, frowned and rummaged through his box again

"To commemorate our momentous feat of construction. But the stones are not smooth enough to draw our faces proper" He tested another piece by drawing a fat circle on the stone"Watch this!"

He drew a smaller circle atop the first one,  then added dashes and dots until the charcoal smear transformed into the image of a bear

Henry chuckled delightfully

"That one is Silvanus, for he lacks most of his teeth," Edwards said, "Next will be Ebenezer, he's so tall that he requires two stones!" 

Watching him draw our crude likenesses and turn us into a den of bears was like watching a magical show, so much so that when he had drawn the last bear -Myself- and signed his initials with a flourish, he bowed to his audience and we applauded with vigor

"Whats the date of this day?" He asked

"January the fourth!" Greenlaw said 

I sat straight up and hit my head on the bunk above,

"Cant be."

"Surely is" He countered "I've been marking it on a stick I reckon we've got another dozen weeks or so before we march against the British"

"The fourth," I said "Today is the fourth day of January?"

"Did you have an appointment" Benny Joked "A coach arriving? A ship preparing to sail?"

I rubbed the sore spot on my head and lied with ease

"No, Nothing like that. Just lost track of the days."

Word count: 530

(A/N): Sorry short chapter. Next chapter will be slightly different!