“You can’t burn Boston,” retorted Granny severely. “Boston don’t belong to the British soldiery. Houses and shops and all belongs to Americans, as good as you be. True, they’ve most of them fled from it now, but they’ll be back some day--when this fuss is over, and God send that happen right soon. Now whatever is that drum a-beating for?” She held up her head and listened. “I’ve heard fife and drum music enough to last me a long time.” “You’ll hear more of it before you hear less, Ma’am,” muttered Timothy. Dick hurried to the door and stared up the road that led to the Neck, from which the sound came. Kitty went to stand beside him. “Are you really going back to be with the Army, Dick?” she asked, in one of the brief pauses between the slow beats of the drum. Dick cleared his throat. “Seems like I have to,” he murmured. “Would it matter to you, Kit, if I--” His voice broke off, and his hand just brushed her shoulder. “Oh Kitty! Kitty!” cried Sally Rose as she came flying down the street, her bright hair loose on her shoulders and her cheeks flushed with excitement. “They’re bringing the prisoners! There’s going to be an exchange! Perhaps Gerry will be in it!” She dropped down on the broad doorstone and sat there, trying to get back her breath. “How do you know?” asked Dick quickly. He was not looking at Sally Rose, but up the winding street that led to Charlestown Neck and the towns beyond it on the mainland. Kitty looked, too. Down the narrow way between the gabled houses came a slowly moving procession. First the drummer stepped out, a scrawny lad not much taller than Dick. He walked all alone, beating a brass-bound drum, and behind him followed a black horse drawing a phaeton with two men in it. After the phaeton rode two British officers on horseback. She could see nothing more at the moment because of a crook in the street. A little crowd was beginning to gather in the direction of Market Square. Sally Rose finally got back her breath and answered Dick’s question. “When I heard the drum I ran down to Mr. Bassett’s wine shop. He’s back in town, you know, to cut his hay on the Point Road, and I asked him what was happening. He said he heard--” The drummer had come even with the Bay and Beagle now, and his steady beating drowned out the girl’s excited voice. Sally Rose stopped talking and got to her feet. She and Dick and Kitty stood together in the tavern doorway and watched the slow procession advance and pass close by them.