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The news which had flown southward, night and day alike, was in no hurry to run off his tongue; he had been lolling on the porch for half an hour before he told us of the bloodshed between the minute-men of Massachusetts and the British regulars, of the rout of Percy's panting redcoats from Concord to Boston.
The undisciplined minute-men were not very good at standing up in an open square and awaiting the onslaught of a company of regulars, it takes regulars to meet regulars out in the open; but behind trees and fences, from breast-works and scattered points of advantage, each minute-man was a whole army in himself, and the regulars had a hard time of it on their retreat, the trees and stones which a few hours before had been just trees and stones, became miniature fortresses.
The musket of the old war, the shot-gun of the sportsman, and the rifle of the hunter were brought from their resting-places and prepared for use. Forge and hammer were busy in making guns and swords. Minute-men in every hamlet prepared to march on the moment. Nor were the women idle; wheel and loom were busy as never before.
The proper care and beautifying of the streets and public places in his own community, the collection of literature for prisoners or the inmates of asylums or hospitals near at hand, supplying play equipment, clothing, or any useful thing for unfortunate boys in congested city districts, helping the minister and church in the distribution of printed matter and alms, aiding smaller boys in the organization of their games, helping some indigent widow, giving an entertainment, selling tickets, souvenirs, or any merchantable article which they may properly handle for the purpose of devoting the profits to some immediate charity; making for sale articles in wood, metal, or leather for the same purpose; winning other boys from bad associations to the better influences of their own group, helping in the conduct of public worship by song or otherwise, acting as messengers and minute-men for the pastor something of this sort should engage part of their time and attention in order that they may be drawn into harmony with the spirit of the church.
Major Buttrick with the minute-men and Colonel Barrett with the militia formed in line by the liberty pole. "Prime and load!" his order. Roger poured the powder into the palm of his hand, emptied it into the gun, and rammed it home with a ball. Never had he experienced such a sensation as at the moment.
This detachment had a meeting with the minute-men, and blood was drawn. A running fight ensued, in which several hundreds have been killed and wounded; and I think I know both sides sufficiently well, to predict that a long and bloody civil war is begun. These are facts you should know, and accordingly I tell them to you."
A gentleman from the country, who had joined the minute-men, came in one day to the Charleston Hotel, with a huge cockade on his hat, expecting to be received with great applause; but, to his astonishment, he was greeted with laughter and ridicule.
Shortly after the battle of Lexington it was the interest of the Colonies to make the British troops not only wanton, but unresisted, aggressors; and if primitive Christians could be manufactured by affidavit, so large a body of them ready to turn the other cheek also was never gathered as in the minute-men before the meeting-house on the 19th of April, 1775.
At the British Coffee House, that afternoon, the group of officers was gayer than usual, and there was much laughter and many toasts. "Here's to the Yankee minute-men!" said one: "the men who'll run the minute they see the enemy!" General Gage stalked about, solemn, important and monosyllabic.
'But what does the party here, this side of the river, right under the Hessians' nose, if 'Oh, we are minute-men, sent from within by Captain Smallcross, to seize this deserter don't you mean to let us in? "Nathaniel closed the window and said, 'I don't know what to make of these men.
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