d sword."

"Rightly spoken, Colonel Blake," said my father, who had just then
reached the spot where the Colonel was standing. "I am an old man, and
had looked forward to ending my days in peace; but willingly will I
promise you that the enemy shall march over my dead body before they get
within our entrenchments. I served on board the ships of your honoured
father, when we had many a tough fight with corsairs, Spaniards,
Portingales, and Dutchmen; and I feel sure that I shall not draw my
sword in vain when his son commands. Maybe you may remember Richard
Bracewell?"

"Well indeed I do," answered Colonel Blake, putting out his hand and
warmly shaking that of my father. "And many a long yarn about your
adventures have I listened to with eager interest, while I longed to
sail over the wide ocean and to visit the strange countries you
described. Who is that youngster standing by you?" he then asked in a
kindly tone, looking down on me.

"My only boy, the son of my old age," answered my father. "Though young
now, he will, I trust, ere long grow big enough to fight for the civil
and religious liberties of our country, or to defend her from foreign
foes."

"Judging by his looks, and knowing whose son he is, I would gladly have
him with me when he is old enough, should heaven spare our lives; but at
present he is too young to be exposed to the dangers of war, and I would
advise you to keep him under lock and key when the fight is going on, or
he will be running where bullets and round shot are falling, and perhaps
his young life will be taken before he has had time to strike a blow for
the liberties of our country."

"I hope that I can do something now, sir," I said, not liking the
thoughts of being shut up. "I can fire a pistol if I cannot point an
arquebuse; and since morning I have carried a hundred baskets or more of
earth to the embankment."

"You speak bravely, my boy, and bravely you will act when the time
comes," said the Colonel, and forthwith he addressed himself to others
who came to receive his orders. Such was my first introduction to one
with whom I was destined to serve for many a year.

I well remember the spot where we were standing. On one side lay the
blue sea extending to the horizon, below us was the town with its
white-walled, straw-thatched buildings, the church with its spire to the
left, and before us were the green slopes of the hills sprinkled here
and there with clumps of trees, wh