of Uncle
David. I turned my face to the wall and cried, which as you may know
I'm not in the habit of doing. Not till after he had left Pryndale did
I realize what I owed to him. He was much superior to any teacher I
had in London and he was so patient and kindly with us, imps that we
were.

"Since you left Pryndale things seem much changed and for the worse.
Papa is all out of sorts with what he terms the disloyalty of the
people. He insists we are being driven into a wicked war by a few
hot-headed men together with those who are so ambitious they would
sacrifice their country. I wish I knew the right of it. People who
used to be friendly now look the other way. Only the other day
Gobber's urchins were playing by the road when I rode past their cabin
and the dirty imps made faces and cried out, 'Tory, I hate Tories.'

"Next month papa and I are going to Philadelphia and he may later sail
for London. Somehow, it seems to me as if I weren't coming back. I
suppose being shut up in the house with my sprained ankle makes me
spleeny. Write me in the Quaker city, won't you, and address care of
my uncle, Jacob Derwent. Now don't forget.

"But I know I have tired you already, so here's good-bye and my
regards to Rodney, not forgetting Nat, splendid fellow.

"Your affectionate niece,
"ELIZABETH DANESFORD."

Rodney and Angus arrived at Williamsburg April 19th, the very day the
Massachusetts minute men were hanging on the flanks of the running
British like so many angry hornets. The following day, the minute men
of that part of Virginia were to be aroused by a similar cause, the
attempt of the representatives of England to get possession of the
colony's powder.

It will be remembered that it was in the night that the British troops
sneaked out of Boston to go after the powder stored at Concord. It was
also in the night that the royal governor, Lord Dunmore, secretly
removed the powder from the old arsenal in Williamsburg and put it
aboard the British vessel _Magdalen_ in the York River. The British in
Boston didn't get the powder, but Dunmore's men did, only there were
but fifteen half-barrels of it.

The population of Williamsburg at the time was only about two
thousand, and it must be remembered that the country round about was
not so thickly settled as Massachusetts, consequently the minute men
couldn't assemble so quickly; but there