“Guess we need all the doctors we got,” said Gorham, “or you’d gone packing with the Tory lawyers and parsons. But you been a mighty good doctor. Only in time of war it pays a man to sing low and mind his business. You understand? Folks ain’t in a sociable humor.” “War?” * * * * * The older man looked out of the window with his worn, wistful face and watched his neighbors trooping down the road. He sighed. “Guess it don’t make any difference now. Daylight’s come and the job finished. Last night Prescott and fifteen hundred men crossed Charlestown Neck and threw up earthworks on Breed’s Hill. We people are goin’ over to help out if a fight comes. Now you see, Isaac?” Brent turned from his friend and went to the fireplace, his ruddy face losing a measure of its color. For a considerable time he stared at the flames. “Why,” said he, at last, “has every one avoided telling me this? I can’t do your cause any harm, even if I were inclined.” “Part of our nature, I guess. It goes against the grain to tell a Tory anything--even a friendly one.” The last of the fagots in the hearth fell apart with a little flurry. The doctor’s wife came into the room again, saw the two men standing so grimly apart and withdrew silently. Brent struck a fist against the wall. “Every day you come nearer to open rebellion. And to think there was a time not long ago when men still kept their heads and were at peace. Now I’m a ‘---- Tory leech’ and if it were not because they needed me I’d be run into Boston with the rest. What a state of affairs!” “You’ve got to break eggs to make a cake,” returned Gorham. “It’s a just cause, and the time’s gone by for talking.” “But plenty of time for men to be killed and wounded, eh? Listen to me, Caleb. It takes many years to make a man, and but one bullet to dissolve him. Have you hotheads thought of that? I will never believe the country moved deliberately to such a pass. It has all been the work of a few scurvy agitators. Hancock loses a few pounds profit because of the embargo, and lo! he turns in fury. And what does Adams think of Lexington and Concord? Why, it was a bright and glorious morning when he heard firing! No, Caleb, these few agitators have worked the minds of honest men, and now you go to fight, embroiled in an argument not of your own making. An argument that might have been settled peaceably, with a little cool patience. An agitator’s war, and other poor ---- must bleed for that folly!” Gorham picked up his gun. “It is strange, Isaac, that you know the people so illy. I think you underrate our minds and our temper.” He opened the door and crossed the sill. For a moment he appeared to be framing some other sentence, but in the end he turned his cadaverous face to the doctor and dropped it an inch by way of farewell. Someone called him from the road and, in a few strides, he had joined company and was off toward Charlestown Neck, tramping down the dusty highway.