cellars.

Thus, up to the end of the first month, although the allowance of food
was short, no real suffering was undergone by the inhabitants; but, as
time went on, the supplies doled out became smaller and smaller, and
dysentery and fever broke out in the crowded town.

Fierce disputes arose between those belonging to the Established Church
and the Nonconformists, and it was with the greatest difficulty that
Governor Walker prevented the two parties from engaging in open strife.
Day and night, the besiegers' fire continued, and many were killed by the
shells which fell in the city. The fighting men on the walls were far
better off than those who had nothing to do but to wait and suffer, and
it was among the women and children, chiefly, that disease at first made
its victims.

For a time, the children of the families who had taken refuge with the
tanner remained healthy. The visitors were lodged for the most part in
the cellars, so as to be in shelter from the fire of the enemy's mortar;
but John Whitefoot suggested to his cousin that the children would soon
pine and sicken, unless they had air. The tanner gave his consent to
John's establishing a shelter in the yard. A corner was chosen, and a
number of casks were placed along by either wall; on these beams were
laid, for it happened that the tanner had intended, shortly before the
siege, to build a large shed, and had got the timber together for the
purpose.

On the timber, bark from the now disused pits was heaped to a depth of
some feet, which would effectually break the fall of any shell which
might light upon it, and, along the front of this low triangular
building, two lines of sacks filled with tan were placed. These would
suffice to prevent any fragment of a shell, which might fall and burst in
the courtyard, from entering the shelter; save by the opening, about a
foot deep, between the top of the sacks and the beams.

When the whole was completed, John gathered the children there, and made
it their headquarters, and established himself as captain of the castle,
as he called it.

The elders entered warmly into his plans. It was a great relief, to them,
to have the house cleared of the eighteen or twenty children. Their
mothers had no longer any anxiety for their safety, and the children
themselves looked upon it as great fun. There was plenty of air here,
and, in a short time, John persuaded the parents to allow the children to
sleep, as well as to pas