had been done at
Lexington.

I could hear my mother as she went to the barred door and asked as to
who might be there, after which came the answer, so distinct that I
could catch every word:

"I would see Luke Wright, having a message from his father."

"And who may you be?" mother asked.

"Hiram Griffin," came the reply.

"It is the son of the old woman who fed us when we were hungry," I cried
joyfully to Archie as I ran down the stairs, taking three or four steps
at a bound, for I knew this Hiram Griffin had been loitering in
Cambridge until he might be of service to the Cause, and his coming
could not betoken ill for me or mine.

As soon as might be I unbarred the door, while my mother was striving
with trembling fingers to get a flame to the candle, and then there
entered a young fellow who could hardly have been one and twenty, stout
of frame, with a face betokening rarest good nature, but yet at the same
time giving one to believe that he might be dull and heavy in his
movements.

"Where did you come from?" I asked, forgetting that it was my duty, in
the absence of my father, to welcome this visitor.

"I am from Cambridge where our people are gathering as flies gather
around molasses, so that in time we may have men enough to meet all the
forces General Gage can send against us."

"How did you get here?"

"Partly by walking, partly by pulling in a skiff, and partly by
swimming, for one of his majesty's guard-boats ran me down half a mile
or more from the shore, and had I not played the muskrat, being able to
stay under water as long as that animal, I had been in the city jail by
this time."

Now it was I saw his clothes were sodden; the water which dripped from
every fold of his garments made a puddle upon the floor, whereat I
quickened the embers on the hearth into a blaze that he might dry
himself, and, understanding what I would do, this Hiram Griffin said
with a laugh:

"A little more or less of water won't do me any harm, and I can well
afford to take the wetting because of shutting the eyes of the lobster
backs so finely. They counted that I must have drowned, since one of the
lubbers aimed a blow at my head and shattered the gunwale of the boat.
Most like he thought my skull was stove in, and consequently they did
not spend much time looking for a dead man that was believed to be at
the bottom of the harbor."

"But you came with a message," Archie interrupted as he descended the
stairs, l