Bunker Hill, Battle of, Boston, Mass., 1775 -- Juvenile fiction; United States -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783 -- Juvenile fiction
They stood still and looked at each other. A salt-smelling wind blew
down the old street, and a wisp of fog came with it. Fog was dimming
the lights of Boston, that even now, close to midnight, still burned
on the other side of the river. The lights looked unfriendly, Kitty
thought, as she remembered that Boston was in the hands of the enemy.
Down by the wharves men were shouting and the shouts had an angry
sound. A burst of musket fire broke out, somewhere off Medford way. The
girls looked at each other and shivered. They were hungry and tired and
fly-bitten. They were a little frightened, maybe.
“What will we do now?” asked Kitty. The tone reminded Sally Rose that
she was to blame for the plight they were in, even if the words did
not.
“I--don’t--quite know,” faltered Sally Rose. “We can get into the
house. We’ll have a roof over our heads, and a bed to sleep in. Maybe
there’s something to eat in the cupboard. We’ll be safe for tonight.
But it’s after that I’m thinking of. We can’t run the tavern alone,
without father, and how are we to live if we cannot run the tavern?”
“We could send for Gran,” said Kitty a little mockingly. “Of course
she’s a timid old lady, but I notice she’s able to do most everything
that comes her way. I’ll bet she’d be able to serve up cider, or rum
toddy, or hot grog--or whatever it is they drink.”
Suddenly Sally Rose was smiling again. “Kitty, that’s a wonderful plan.
Let’s climb into the house now, and have supper, and sleep forever.
When we wake up we’ll send her a letter by the first post. The buttery
window’s around here at the back, under the apple tree. Come along. I
can unfasten the catch, but you’ll have to hoist me in.”
_Chapter Eight_
SAVED BY A PIPE-SMOKING MAN
Standing in the wet salt grass at the end of Chelsea Neck, Tom Trask
shifted the old blunderbuss from one shoulder to the other.
“Wisht I had my own gun,” he said to himself. “I’d rather try to lug a
young pine tree, roots and all, than this critter here.”
Then he smiled sheepishly as he thought of the pretty girl who had
loaned him the aged weapon. She was a pretty girl, too. Likely he’d go
to her house and see her when he went down river with the logs next
spring. Guess she wouldn’t have any eyes for the Newburyport lads when
he was about. This fuss would all be over by then, and folks back where
they belonged, plowing their own ground.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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