At this moment Ben Foster came running up. He was a manly-looking youth, and was lively and jolly as a rule. But now he was very sober-looking, for he realized that Dick, whose father had been captured by the Tories only the day before, was in no mood for jollity. There was an eager expression on Ben's face, however, and after greeting Dick, he asked: "Are you really going to join the Continental army, Dick, you and Tom!" "Yes, Ben," was the reply. "Well, say, I'm going to go with you," declared Ben. "Oh, Ben!" exclaimed Elsie. "What will father say?" "Father's all right, sis. He is a king's man, everybody knows that, but he is reasonable, and lets other people think as they like. He knows that I'm a patriot, and he won't object." Dick's face lighted up, for he liked Ben very much, and the idea of having him along was a pleasing one. "That would be fine, Ben," he said. "But I wouldn't want you to do anything contrary to the wishes of your father." "Oh, that will be all right," Ben assured him. "He won't care, I am sure." "Goodness, what will Mary do if you go away?" said Elsie. Ben seemed to think as much of Mary Dare as Dick did of Elsie, and he flushed slightly at his sister's words, and then retorted: "I guess she'll do about the same thing that you will when Dick goes-go up into the attic and have a good cry." "You're a mean brother," said Elsie in pretended anger, lifting her hand as if to slap him, "and if it wasn't that I will likely soon lose you, I would box your ears soundly." They talked awhile, and then Dick attended to the errand that had brought him there and went home. "I guess we will have company when we go to war, Tom" he said to his brother. "Is that so?" with an interested ear. "Who?" "Ben Foster." "You don't mean it, Dick?" "Yes. He just told me he intends to accompany us." "But-his father's a Tory!" "Yes, but he is a reasonable man, and Ben says that he will not object." "Well, that will be fine. I'd like to have Ben along." "So would I. And I guess he'll go." "I hope he will. He's such a lively, jolly fellow that he is good company, and will help keep us from getting homesick." "I guess, Tom, that we will be kept too busy to get homesick." "You think there will be lots of fighting, then? You feel certain that there will be war?" "War has really existed for more than a year, Tom. You know the battle of Lexington was fought April the nineteenth of last year, and that was the first battle of the Revolution. And since that there has been more or less skirmishing between the `Minute Men' of New England and the British, the most important of all these being the battle of Bunker Hill, which took place on the seventeenth day of June of last year." "Our soldiers defeated the British there, didn't they, Dick!" "Yes, they got all the better of the battle, but their ammunition gave out and they had to retreat. Still, it was equivalent to a victory." "That's what I thought."