The Minute Boys of Boston

Illustrated by

L. J. BRIDGMAN

BOSTON
DANA ESTES & COMPANY
PUBLISHERS
Copyright, 1910
By Dana Estes & Company
All rights reserved
Electrotyped and Printed by
THE COLONIAL PRESS
C. H. Simonds & Co., Boston, U.S.A.

CHAPTER PAGE
I. Why We Were Enrolled 11
II. Raising a Company 29
III. The War Begun 48
IV. The Prisoner 71
V. Suspicious Information 89
VI. A Cloudy Night 104
VII. The Summons 126
VIII. Hog Island 144
IX. On Special Duty 163
X. On Breed's Hill 183
XI. The Retreat 203
XII. In Boston Town 222
XIII. Grave Doubts 242
XIV. The Secret Passage 261
XV. An Awkward Capture 279
XVI. Important Documents 298
XVII. Hiram's Venture 316
XVIII. Turning the Trick 334

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE
"And we did check them!" (p. 195) Frontispiece
"I could have tossed my hat aboard their craft" 27
"I leaped the fence" 61
The Encampment at Cambridge 83
"The second flash of lightning showed me this scene" 117
"'Who shall say now that we haven't the right to call ourselves Minute Boys?'" 157
"Master Lord held up the unscreened lantern" 229
"'Would you do murder?'" 282

[Pg 11]

CHAPTER I

WHY WE WERE ENROLLED

Archie Hemming is as straight-headed a boy as was ever raised in Boston town, and he insists that, while we are seemingly idling our time away here in the Cambridge camp, I ought to set down what small share we lads of Boston have had in beating the lobster backs, for certain it is we have done our share, and no less a man than General Israel Putnam has told us plainly that we have already been of great aid to the Cause.

After such praise as that it would not be strange if we allowed ourselves to be puffed up with pride, more especially because we can recall many a time since a baker's dozen of us took the high sounding name of "Minute Boys of Boston," when we have come off best in a tussle with the king's soldiers or the rascally Tories.

It may seem a matter of surprise to those who have not had a hand in teaching his majesty a long-needed lesson, that there should be in this colony of ours, men, and boys too, who could be so evil minded as to do all they might against those who were shedding their blood, or imperilling their[Pg 12] lives, to release them from the oppressive yoke of English misrule, but such was, and is, the fact.

During my short life, for I am not yet turned fifteen years, I have been in more danger, and suffered more of hardships from and through Tories, our own neighbors and alleged friends, than ever came my way by the efforts of the red-coated soldiers who allowed to whip us off-hand, before getting a taste of our metal at Breed's hill—I can never bring myself to speak of that battle as having taken place at Bunker hill, for the simple reason that we did not fight there.

Archie, who is sitting nearby with Silas Brownrigg, looking over my shoulder to make certain I keep steadily and correctly at the task he has assigned me, says that he did not count on my beginning the story in such a roundabout way, for he wants to see in black and white, as soon as may be, an account of what we Boston Minute Boys have done thus far in the war against the king.

Now it seems to me that I ought to begin this tale with the reason why some of us Boston lads decided it might be possible for us to work in behalf of the Cause, and in order to do that I must hark back to what has been done these two years past to us of Boston by the king, and those hangers on of his who counted on grinding us into the dust as if we were made of baser stuff than they.