From the youngest boy to the oldest man, the citizens were in such a ferment of excitement as gave recruits the idea that to enlist was simply providing amusement for themselves during a certain number of days, and, with the exception of those experienced in such matters, no person believed for a moment that the brave ones who were rallying at their country's call would suffer hardships or privations. In fact, this going forth to capture the fort at Ticonderoga was to be a pleasure excursion rather than anything else, and Isaac Rice believed he was the most fortunate lad in the province of Massachusetts. His outfit did not require that his mother should spend very much time upon it. The clothes he wore comprised the only suit he owned, and when two shirts and three pairs of stockings had been made into a parcel of the smallest possible size, and he had borrowed his father's gun, powder horn and shot pouch, the equipment was complete. Then came the most important of the preparations, to Isaac's mind, for he knew the corporal would criticize it closely--the store of provisions. Had he been allowed his own bent the remainder of the Rice family might have been put on short allowance, for, with a view to pleasing the corporal, he urged that this article of food, and then that, should be put into the bag which served him as a haversack, until the larder must have been completely emptied but for his mother's emphatic refusal to follow such suggestions. If Mrs. Rice did not shed bitter tears over Isaac when he left her to join the recruits, it was because she shared the opinion of many others in Pittsfield, and felt positive the lad would soon return, none the worse for his short time of soldiering. It was but natural she should take a most affectionate farewell of him, however, even though believing he would be in no especial danger, and a glimpse of the tears which his mother could not restrain caused an uncomfortable swelling in the would-be soldier's throat. This leaving home, even to march away by the side of Corporal 'Lige, was not as pleasant as he had supposed, and for the moment he ceased to so much as think of the provision-bag. "Now, see here, mother," he said, with a brave attempt at indifference. "I'm not counting on doing anything more than help take the fort, and since the corporal is to be with us, that can't be a long task." "You will ever be a good boy, Isaac?" "Of course, mother." "And you will write me a letter, if it so be you find the opportunity?" This was not a pleasing prospect to the boy, for he had never found it an easy task to make a fair copy of the single line set down at the top of his writing-book; but his heart was sore for the moment, and he would have promised even more in order to check his mother's tears. Therefore it was he agreed to make her acquainted with all his movements, so far as should be possible, and, that done, it seemed as if the sting was taken in a great measure from the parting.