If Don is a fictitious hero he is at least typical of many another patriot lad who, too young to serve a great cause under arms, did serve it nevertheless as best he could. How he cared for his Aunt Martha throughout the long trying months of British occupation and in the end foiled Crean Brush’s Tories and performed a service for General Washington makes a story that is well within the beaten paths of history. The facts of history, taken alone, are likely to seem cold and colorless; regarded from the point of view of a hero in whom we are interested, and whose life they are affecting, they glow with warmth and romance. If readers who follow the adventures of Don find that at the end of the story the Tea Party, Bunker Hill, Lexington and Concord and other important events of history are a little more real to them than they were at first, I shall be content. That is one of the purposes of the book. The other, and perhaps the more important, is simply to provide an interesting story of a boy--a Patriot Lad of Old Boston. THE AUTHOR. CONTENTS I. TEA AND SALT WATER 11 II. DON FINDS A NEW FRIEND 24 III. A REDCOAT GETS WET 36 IV. A TRIP TO CONCORD 49 V. THE REGULARS COME OUT 62 VI. ACROSS THE FLATS 77 VII. JUD APPLETON 92 VIII. THE BOYS SET A TRAP 105 IX. THE REGULARS EMBARK 116 X. FROM A HOUSETOP 128 XI. THE LIBERTY TREE 142 XII. A BLUSTERING SERGEANT-MAJOR 152 XIII. A FARCE IS INTERRUPTED 162 XIV. A BROKEN LOCK 173 XV. MARCH WINDS BLOW 184 XVI. CREAN BRUSH’S MEN 194 XVII. DON MEETS GENERAL WASHINGTON 207 ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE “YOU NEEDN’T BE AFRAID OF THIS TEA; NOBODY’S PAID A TAX ON IT.” _Frontispiece_ HE LIFTED HIS HEAD CAUTIOUSLY AND BEGAN TO COUNT 72 “WHO LIVES HERE BESIDE YOURSELF, YOUNG SIRE?” 154 [Illustration] A Patriot Lad of Old Boston CHAPTER I TEA AND SALT WATER A pink and golden sunset was flaming across Boston Common. It was one of the prettiest sunsets of the whole winter of 1773; but on that day, the sixteenth of December, few persons were in the mood to stop and admire it. For trouble had come to town. In the Old South Meeting-House at the corner of Marlborough and Milk Streets the largest and perhaps the most important town-meeting in the history of Boston was in session. The hall was filled to overflowing, and those who had been unable to gain admittance lingered in the streets and tried to learn from their neighbors what was going on inside.