ever bring
myself to speak of that battle as having taken place at Bunker hill, for
the simple reason that we did not fight there.

Archie, who is sitting nearby with Silas Brownrigg, looking over my
shoulder to make certain I keep steadily and correctly at the task he
has assigned me, says that he did not count on my beginning the story in
such a roundabout way, for he wants to see in black and white, as soon
as may be, an account of what we Boston Minute Boys have done thus far
in the war against the king.

Now it seems to me that I ought to begin this tale with the reason why
some of us Boston lads decided it might be possible for us to work in
behalf of the Cause, and in order to do that I must hark back to what
has been done these two years past to us of Boston by the king, and
those hangers on of his who counted on grinding us into the dust as if
we were made of baser stuff than they.

We lads, being young, did not realize all the iniquity of which General
Gage was capable, when his acts were purely political, and, perhaps,
gave but little heed to our elders when we heard them predicting that he
would ruin the colony if it should not be possible to check his unlawful
career; but when on the first day of June, in the year of grace 1774,
he closed our port of Boston to all vessels save those of the king's,
shutting us up like mice in a trap to starve, or leave the colony as
fugitives, then did we realize that the moment had come for something
more than talk.

General Gage had brought soldiers from Halifax, Quebec, New York and
even Ireland, to keep us of Boston in subjection to him, until the
lobster backs out-numbered our people two to one, or so it seemed to me,
and when he had us cooped up, through having set his hirelings to guard
the Neck, thereby preventing us from going out, or our friends of the
country from coming in, then did he crown the height of his oppression
by making declaration that the port was closed to all.

He had under his command ships of the king enough to enforce this
unrighteous act, and there we were, much the same as tied hand and foot.
The poor people became beggars because there was no work by which they
could earn money to buy food, while the rich found that with all their
wealth it was impossible to purchase what was not for sale because of
the scarcity, and meanwhile the king's lobster backs fed on the fat of
the land, devouring us and our substance as did the locusts that were