A Song of a Single Note: A Love StoryBarr, Amelia E.
General
A Song of a Single Note: A Love Story
Barr, Amelia E.
Fiction; Love stories
"Six months after you sent him to England. He said he could not, durst
not, stay there. He thought that God might have some work that needed
_just him_ to do it. I think Harry found that work."
"Why did you not tell me at the time?"
"I was in Boston, at school, when Harry first came to me, and we talked
together then about telling you. But at that time both of us supposed
you to be a King's man, and the party feeling was then riotously cruel.
Harry had been three months with Washington, and his peculiar fitness
for the New York Secret Service had been found out. Still, Washington
took no unfair advantage of his youth and enthusiasm. He told him he
would be one of a band of young men who lived with their lives in their
hands. And when Harry answered, 'General, if I can bring you information
that will help Freedom forward one step, my life gladly for it,'
Washington's eyes shone, and he gave Harry his hand and said, 'Brave
boy! Your father must be a happy man.'"
She paused here and looked at the father, and saw that his face was
lifted and that a noble pride strove with a noble pain for the mastery.
So she continued: "Harry _has_ helped Freedom forward. He found out,
while pretending to fish for the garrison at Stony Point, the best way
across the marsh and up the rocks. He helped to set afloat the reports
that brought Tryon back from Connecticut, and the garrison from Rhode
Island. He has prepared the way for many a brave deed, taken all the
danger and the labor, getting no fame and wanting none, his only aim to
serve his country and to be loved and trusted by Washington. If we erred
in keeping these things from you, it has been an error of love. And when
we knew you also were serving your country in your own way, Harry was
sure you would do it better and safer if you were not always looking for
him--fearing for him. Oh, father! surely you see how his presence would
have embarrassed you and led to suspicion."
"I would like to have seen the boy," he said, softly, as if he were
thinking the words to himself.
"He saw you often, never came to the city without passing the shop to
see you; and it made both of us happy to believe that very soon now he
would dare to speak to you and to say, 'Father, forgive me.'"
"I must go to him, Agnes. Harry's life must be saved, or I, John
Bradley, will know the reason why. Yes, and if he has to die there are
some big men here, playing double-face, that will die with him. I know
them----"
"Oh, father! father! What are you saying? Vengeance is not ours. Would
it bring Harry back to us?"
"It is more than I can bear. Who was the informer? Tell me that. And
where was he taken?"
"I cannot tell who informed. He was taken with his little boat at Elder
Semple's landing by a party of Scotch Highlanders."
"What on earth was he doing at Semple's? Do you think the Elder, or that
fine gentleman Neil, gave information?"
"They were both arrested with Harry. They also are in prison."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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