t, Thomas," said the prudent mother.

"No matter, Tom; I'll stand by you," added John.

After dinner, the two boys walked down to the Harbor together.

CHAPTER II.

THE SOMERS FAMILY.

The town of Pinchbrook is not a great distance from Boston, with which it
is connected by railroad. If any of our young readers are of a
geographical turn of mind, and are disposed to ascertain the exact
locality of the place, we will save them any unnecessary trouble, for it
is not laid down on any map with which we are familiar. We live in times
of war, and probably our young friends have already learned the meaning of
"military necessity." Our story is essentially a military story, and there
are certain military secrets connected with it which might be traced out
if we should inform our inquisitive readers exactly where Pinchbrook is
situated.

Squire Pemberton, we doubt not, is very anxious to find out certain
persons connected with some irregular proceedings in and around his house
on the evening of Monday, April 16th. Fidelity to the truth of history
compels us to narrate these proceedings in our humble volume; but we
should exceedingly regret thereby to get any of our friends into a scrape
by informing the squire that they were active participants in the scenes
of that eventful night, or to say any thing which would enable him, a
lawyer, to trace out the authors of the mischief through these pages.
Therefore we cannot say where Pinchbrook is, or even give a hint which
would enable our readers to fix definitely its locality.

Pinchbrook is a town of about three thousand inhabitants, engaged, as the
school books would say, in agriculture, manufactures, commerce, and the
fisheries, which, rendered into still plainer English, means that some of
the people are farmers; that wooden pails, mackerel kegs, boots and shoes,
are made; that the inhabitants buy groceries, and sell fish, kegs, pails,
and similar wares; and that there are about twenty vessels owned in the
place, the principal part of which are fishermen.

We have not the agricultural and commercial statistics of the place at
hand; but the larger territorial part of the town was devoted to the
farming interest, and was rather sparsely populated, while the principal
village, called Pinchbrook Harbor, was more densely peopled, contained two
stores, four churches, one wharf, a blacksmith shop, and several shoe and
bucket manufactories.

We are willing to acknowledge