I was needing water more than food, and the cask which had been set near where the Minute Boys were working having been emptied, I went further to the rear in search of something to quench my thirst. Then it was I found that the last two casks of water had been knocked to splinters by random shots from one of the vessels, and, so far as I could learn, there was no more that could be come at by us who were in the intrenchments, which was a bad outlook if so be we were called upon to fight. When we ceased work the flag of New England was hoisted over the redoubt. The intrenching tools which we had been using were sent across to Bunker hill where, as I was afterward told, a few hundred men, who had just come over from Medford, were set at work throwing up another breastwork under command of General Putnam. While we munched our corn bread, wishing in vain for something with which to wash it down, my comrades and I watched the lobster backs as they were embarked in barges, some from Long wharf, and some from the North battery, making such a scene of warlike array as I had never before witnessed. Even though they were our enemies, it was a glorious sight to see the precision with which detachment after detachment came up, took their places in the boats, and remained motionless as statues while the oarsmen pulled them across, heading for Morton's point, as it seemed to me. Now the cannons from the _Lively_ and the _Falcon_ began to belch forth flame and iron missiles, sweeping all that plain between our redoubt and the water as if to prevent us from making any attempt at opposing the landing. Had General Gage, or whosoever gave the orders for the vessels of war to open fire, known how weary, how thirsty and nearly exhausted we were, their powder and balls might well have been saved, for I question if even Colonel Prescott, warrior though he was, or Doctor Warren, whom I had not seen until just before noon, would have given the word for us to charge in the hope of checking that advance of well-trained soldiers, or to prevent them from stepping foot on shore. "How many men think you are in yonder barges?" I heard Silas ask Hiram, and he replied with never a tremor in his voice: "Nigh about three thousand, lad, and if they don't make us wish for water 'twixt now and night I'll agree never to satisfy my thirst again." CHAPTER X ON BREED'S HILL It was somewhere near about this time when our numbers were slightly increased by the arrival of a portion of Colonel Stark's regiment, and I verily believe that the coming of those men did more to dishearten us than if they had stayed away. After having had sight of such a small force, a few of the faint-hearted cried out in anger, declaring we were to be left to our fate, or that some one had blundered in sending us where there could be no question but that an assault would be provoked.