At last some one told the gen-er-al that a queer-looking fellow wanted to see him.

“Let him come up,” said the general.

The odd little man came in.  He told the general all about the troubles of the poor washer-woman.  The general sent word that the soldiers must not stay any longer in her house.

The general liked the kind little man.  He told him to come to see him again.  He told the soldiers at his door to let Benezet come in when-ever he wished to.

Soon after the Rev-o-lu-tion was over, Benezet was taken ill.  When the people of Phil-a-del-phi-a heard that he was ill, they gathered in crowds about his house.  Every-body loved him.  Every-body wanted to know whether he was better or not.  At last the doctors said he could not get well.  Then the people wished to see the good man once more.  The doors were opened.  The rooms and halls of his house were filled with people coming to say good-bye to Benezet, and going away again.

When he was buried, it seemed as if all Phil-a-del-phi-a had come to his fu-ner-al.  The rich and the poor, the black and the white, crowded the streets.  The city had never seen so great a fu-ner-al.

In the company was an A-mer-i-can general.  He said, “I would rather be An-tho-ny Benezet in that coffin than General Wash-ing-ton in all his glory.”

PUTNAM AND THE WOLF.

Putnam was a brave soldier.  He fought many battles against the Indians.  After that he became a general in the Revolution.  But this is a story of his battle with a wolf.  It took place when he was a young man, before he was a soldier.

Putnam lived in Con-nect-i-cut.  In the woods there were still a few wolves.  One old wolf came to Putnam’s neigh-bor-hood every winter.  She always brought a family of young wolves with her.

The hunters would always kill the young wolves.  But they could not find the old mother wolf.  She knew how to keep out of the way.

The farmers tried to catch her in their traps.  But she was too cunning.  She had had one good lesson when she was young.  She had put the toes of one foot into a steel trap.  The trap had snipped them off.  After that she was more careful.

One winter night she went out to get some meat.  She came to Putnam’s flock of sheep and goats.  She killed some of them.  She found it great fun.

There were no dogs about.  The poor sheep had nobody to protect them.  So the old wolf kept on killing.  One sheep was enough for her supper.  But she killed the rest just for sport.  She killed seventy sheep and goats that night.

Putnam and his friends set out to find the old sheep killer.  There were six men of them.  They agreed that two of them should hunt for her at a time.  Then another two should begin as soon as the first two should stop.  So she would be hunted day and night.

The hunters found her track in the snow.  There could be no mistake about it.  The track made by one of her feet was shorter than those made by the other feet.  That was because one of her feet had been caught in a trap.