we might the better evade the red-coated watch, which patrolled every street, and fearful lest we be chided by our parents, even though we called ourselves by the high sounding name of "Minute Boys," for having remained out so late.
Thus it was that we lads, who prided ourselves on being keenly on the alert for any movement of the lobster backs, and much the same as imprisoned in our own city where it all happened, failed of knowing that shortly before the meeting of the Minute Boys was broken up, eight hundred of the king's men were embarked in boats at the Common, bound, as we afterward knew, and as many of our elders were then aware, for Lexington and Concord.
Before nightfall of the next day the Minute Boys of Boston assembled at the rendezvous without having been summoned, for word had been brought into town of the bloody work at Lexington and Concord, and we lads, who counted on taking such active part in the struggle against the king, had lost the first opportunity of showing what it might be possible for us to do.
Sixty-five of the king's soldiers had been killed, one hundred and eighty wounded, and twenty-eight taken prisoners; while of our people fifty-nine were killed, thirty-nine wounded, and five failed to answer to the roll call, having, most like, crawled away, as do the lower animals, to die alone.
All this had been done within and around that town we had so lately visited, and yet Archie, Silas and I, who counted ourselves as being keen-witted, had failed to have the slightest inkling of what was so near at hand.
While we had been making simple plans for the future, loitering in Boston when we might have been of service elsewhere, our people were being shot down by the lobster backs, and as these thoughts came into my mind I felt as if I had committed some grievous sin in laying up against Samuel Hadley the charge of being inhospitable, for he was among the first to yield his life in behalf of the Cause.
Doctor Warren was there, and also my father, while most like the old woman's son, Hiram Griffin, helped to do that which proclaimed to the king our readiness to give our lives rather than submit to injustice. As I counted over those whom I knew and guessed had taken part in that battle, it seemed to me as if of all who would serve the Cause, our Minute Boys were the only ones absent.
It is needless for me to set down all the unavailing words of regret which were spoken among us that night after having heard the news, for it can readily be fancied how we reproached ourselves, and how bitter was our disappointment. In our shortsightedness and inability to realize that the work at Lexington and Concord was but the beginning of the struggle against the king, we failed to understand that we would again and again have ample opportunity of showing what it might be possible for us lads of Boston to do.
What at this day seems to me strangest, was that in our grief and vexation we failed to make any plans for future work. It was as if we had come to believe that the butchery at Lexington ended it all, and we Minute Boys would no longer be needed.
Perhaps our dullness may be accounted for by the fact that there was so much of excitement on this night and the next day, that we hardly had time to think of ourselves. Those yet remaining in Boston, who were devoted to the Cause, gathered here and there to talk over what at the same time brought us sorrow and rejoicing – sorrow that so many of our people had been slaughtered, and rejoicing that the struggle against British misrule had finally begun.
The Tories made a big show of themselves, taking good care to appear in public and boast that this first lesson was but the beginning of a series which the king would teach us. They talked so loudly and gave themselves so wholly over to rejoicing that one would have believed a great victory had been won, whereas, as a matter of fact, our people, all unused to the art of war and but poorly armed, had, as it were, sent the king's trained men home like whipped curs.
If the battle of Lexington was a victory for the lobster backs, then of a verity when the king's men had won a dozen of a similar kind, we of the colony were come off conquerors.
Archie's father was at home during the battle, but on the evening of that day he was summoned to Cambridge, where, so it was stated, our people were gathering in great numbers. His last command to my comrade, and also advice to others of the company who called themselves Minute Boys, was that he and we remain under cover as much as possible during the next three or four days, for it was reasonable to suppose the Britishers would be more severe in their rule than they had been; that only the slightest provocation would be needed to lodge in jail those who favored the Cause.
It was not in my mind that we lads would be allowed to go to Cambridge where an army was gathering under the command of the Committee of Safety, until we had in some way proven ourselves, and therefore, much to my disappointment, I had made up my mind that by not having been in Lexington at the time of the battle we had lost all opportunity for taking part in active work.
Luckily, however, I had sufficient sense to give warning that all those who had been enrolled as Minute Boys should stay near to their own homes until it might be possible to know what our people intended to do, and at the same time hold themselves in readiness for any summons which might come.
It was on the second night after the Lexington butchery that Archie came to my home, having the permission of his mother to sleep with me. We had been earnestly trying to hit upon some way of showing what could be done by lads such as us, and this visit of his to my home was planned that we might have more time in which to discuss matters.
From noon until perhaps three hours after we had gone to bed, we lads talked, suggesting one scheme after another only to discard each as being impossible of execution, when there came a summons at the outer door which brought both of us to our feet trembling with apprehension, although we could not have said why.
Visitors did not often come at such a time, and there were so few among our neighbors friendly to the Cause, who yet remained in Boston town, that it did not seem probable any of them would be abroad so late while the Tories were given over to rejoicing because of what had been done at Lexington.
I could hear my mother as she went to the barred door and asked as to who might be there, after which came the answer, so distinct that I could catch every word:
"I would see Luke Wright, having a message from his father."
"And who may you be?" mother asked.
"Hiram Griffin," came the reply.
"It is the son of the old woman who fed us when we were hungry," I cried joyfully to Archie as I ran down the stairs, taking three or four steps at a bound, for I knew this Hiram Griffin had been loitering in Cambridge until he might be of service to the Cause, and his coming could not betoken ill for me or mine.
As soon as might be I unbarred the door, while my mother was striving with trembling fingers to get a flame to the candle, and then there entered a young fellow who could hardly have been one and twenty, stout of frame, with a face betokening rarest good nature, but yet at the same time giving one to believe that he might be dull and heavy in his movements.
"Where did you come from?" I asked, forgetting that it was my duty, in the absence of my father, to welcome this visitor.
"I am from Cambridge where our people are gathering as flies gather around molasses, so that in time we may have men enough to meet all the forces General Gage can send against us."
"How did you get here?"
"Partly by walking, partly by pulling in a skiff, and partly by swimming, for one of his majesty's guard-boats ran me down half a mile or more from the shore, and had I not played the muskrat, being able to stay under water as long as that animal, I had been in the city jail by this time."
Now it was I saw his clothes were sodden; the water which dripped from every fold of his garments made a puddle upon the floor, whereat I quickened the embers on the hearth into a blaze that he might dry himself, and, understanding what I would do, this Hiram Griffin said with a laugh:
"A little more or less of water won't do me any harm, and I can well afford to take the wetting because of shutting the eyes of the lobster backs so finely. They counted that I must have drowned, since one of the lubbers aimed a blow at my head and shattered the gunwale of the boat. Most like he thought my skull was stove in, and consequently they did not spend much time looking for a dead man that was believed to be at the bottom of the harbor."
"But