Now it seems, as I learned later, for he himself was all too modest to admit having been given command of an important undertaking, that Hiram had been charged with the work of seizing on Noddle and Hog islands such provisions as might be found, to which end he was provided with two small sloops, and had selected from the army four men whom he could trust to aid him in the task. As a matter of course such small force was all insufficient to perform the necessary labor; but he had hit upon the plan of impressing us Minute Boys into service, and therefore it was that during the night, and despite the strict guard kept by the Britishers, one of his vessels, taking advantage of a stiff breeze, had set him ashore near to Hudson's point, from which place he made his way to my home. "Now this is my plan;" he said to me when we were done with swapping information. "You have from now until nearly midnight to call your company together at the rope walk where I landed. Sometime between then and daybreak my comrades will either come near to the land in one of the sloops, or send two or three boats to bring you off, and an hour after sunrise, if so be everything goes as I have reckoned, we will be putting aboard a cargo of such stuff as shall fill the stomachs of those who are loitering near to Cambridge awaiting a good chance to slap his majesty in the face." At the time it did not appear to me we Minute Boys were called upon to play any very heroic part in the so-called "rebellion." It seemed that there would be little of glory gained in loading the sloops with live stock, wheat and corn, and yet before the task was accomplished we Minute Boys of Boston saw what was a veritable battle, although on a small scale, but with as good an opportunity of shedding one's blood as the most ardent warrior could have desired. I smile even at this late day when I think of what a simple I showed myself to be while setting about the task, for on summoning my comrades I was ashamed to tell them we were to work like drovers and farmers rather than as soldiers, therefore led each to understand we were bent on some secret mission to an island near by. And when one and another speculated as to the possible danger to be encountered, or of the opportunities of showing ourselves worthy to be called soldiers, I nursed such fancies until they believed we were going as an independent company to slaughter or to capture whole squads of trained, red-coated soldiers. As a matter of course I set about the work of getting speech with each of my company immediately Hiram had finished explaining matters, and so difficult was it to find them all, scattered about the town as they were, that night had come before I returned to my home.