ted for; it seemed to me that it was
only to make a great noise. I soon learned better, and understood the
purpose of my being more perfectly.

A few days after this, the family was all astir some time before
sunrise. There was a solemn earnestness in their faces, even in the
youngest of them, that was very impressive.

At last, my master took me up, put me in complete order, loaded me and
set me down in the same place, saying as he did so, "Now all is ready."
His wife sighed heavily. He looked at her and said, "My dear, would you
not have us defend our children and firesides against the oppressors?"

"Yes," she said, "go, but my heart must ache at the thought of what may
happen. If I could only go with you!"

They sat silent for a long time, holding each other's hands, and
looking at their children, till, just at sunrise, his brother John,
that sleeping child's grandfather, rushed into the house, crying, "They
are in sight from the hill. Come, Tom, quickly, come to the church." My
master seized me in a moment, kissed his wife and children, and without
speaking hastened to the place where the few men of the then very small
town were assembled to resist the invaders.

Presently about eight hundred men, all armed with muskets as good as I
was, and of the same fashion, were seen. These men had two cannon with
them which made a fearful show to the poor colonists, as the Americans
were then called.

Our men were about one hundred in number. The lordly English marched up
within a few rods of us, and one called out, "Disperse, you rebels. Lay
down your arms, and disperse."

Our men did not however lay down their arms. My master grasped me
tighter than before. We did not stir an inch. Immediately the British
officers fired their pistols, then a few of their men fired their
muskets, and, at last, the whole party fired upon our little band as we
were retreating. They killed eight men, and then went on to Concord, to
do more mischief there.

I felt a heavy weight fall upon me; it was my master's dead body; and
so I learned what muskets were made for. His fingers were on the
trigger; as he fell, he pulled it, and in that sound his spirit seemed
to depart.

The British marched on to Concord, and the poor brave people of
Lexington, who had so gallantly made the first resistance, were left to
mourn over dead companions and friends.

Soon the eldest son of my master discovered his father among the slain.
The poor fellow! I