was floating down
the river. I couldn't do it now."

The instant Major Porter had set little Polly Lewis on the porch Mrs.
Porter was beside him, begging that he would look for Ethel and care
for the boy if he found him. The promise was given, and looking well
despite the uncommon heat, the Major, in all the glory of his military
equipment, set forth.

From that moment all was noise and call and confusion without. Men
went by singly, in groups, in squads, in companies, mounted and on
foot. It is a matter of public record that twelve militia companies,
with their respective captains, went from Waterbury alone to assist
New Haven in the day of its peril. It is no marvel that they set off
with speed, for the horrors of the Danbury burning was yet fresh in
memory.

In the long kitchen, as the heated hours went by, the brick oven was
fired again and again until the very stones of the chimney expanded
with glowing heat, and the last swallow forsook its ancient nest in
despair. The sun was in the west when Mr. Porter, with a bag of wheat
on one side of the saddle and a bag of rye on the other, appeared at
the kitchen entrance and summoned help to unload, but his accustomed
helpers were gone. Even Cato, the reliable, was missing. Phyllis and
Nancy received the wheat and the rye.

"Mother," said Mr. Porter, "I had to do the grinding myself--couldn't
find a man to do it, and I knew it couldn't be done here to-day,
water's too low. Where are the boys?" he questioned, as he entered and
looked around. When informed, his sole ejaculation was, "I ought to
have known that boys always have gone and always will go after
soldiers."

"Don't worry, mother," he added to his wife, as she stood looking
wistfully down the road.

There were tears in her eyes as she said: "Not a boy left."

"Why yes, mother, here comes Stephen and Stiles Hotchkiss up the road.
My! how tired and hot the boys and the horses do look!" exclaimed
Polly.

Stephen waited for no reprimand. He forestalled it by saying: "Captain
Hotchkiss let Stiles and me go far enough to _see_ the British
troops--way off, ever so far--but we saw 'em, we did, didn't we,
Stiles?"

"Come! come!" said Mr. Porter, while the lad's mother stood with her
hand on his head. "Stephen, tell us all about it!"

"Captain Hotchkiss said he was a boy once, and if we'd promise him to
go home the minute he told us to, he'd take us along. Well! we kept
meeting folks running away from New Have