I might, what then, Hardy Baker? What do you want of me?"

"I want you to talk with me, Amos. It seems as if everybody believed I
was as much of a murderer as the 'bloody backs,' and Master Piemont
told me this afternoon never to show my face near his shop again--that
I wasn't wholesome even for Britishers to look at."

"I don't think, Hardy," and now Amos's tone was less sharp than
before, "that you should expect either the people or the soldiers
would be very friendly toward you."

"But I didn't do this thing. I didn't have any more hand in it than
you, or Jim Gray, or Chris Snyder."

"But how can you charge us with any concern in it?"

"Wasn't it all a piece of work beginning with what we did to Master
Lillie? Hasn't it grown out of that?"

"Of course not. Ebenezer Richardson's bloody deed had nothing to do
with the soldiers," Amos cried, quickly, but at the same time a
terrible fear took possession of him that possibly the tragedy on
Hanover Street might have had some connection with that at the Custom
House.

"But, Amos," Hardy continued, imploringly, "when poor little Chris
Snyder was killed through what we did to Master Lillie, and you were
as much concerned in the matter as I, you didn't accuse me then of
being at fault."

"No," Amos said, slowly and thoughtfully, "because that which we did,
so Master Revere said, was not done with any idea or possibility in
our minds that bloodshed might follow."

"Nor was there in my mind any idea that bloodshed might follow when I
told the crowd the soldier at the Custom House was the one who had
knocked me down."

During several moments Amos stood silent and motionless.

Hardy's offending seemed less heinous in his eyes than it had a few
moments previous, and he said, in a milder tone:

"I won't be one to accuse you, Hardy; but let me advise you to leave
the affairs of the city to those who are older and have better
judgment. Don't go about any more with such companions as have been
yours during the past few days."

"Will you forgive me, Amos, for what I did yesterday?"

"I surely ought to, after we settled it with our fists."

"May I walk home with you?" Hardy asked, meekly, after a brief pause.

"To what end?"

"I want to be with some one who is friendly," and Master Piemont's
assistant spoke in a tone of such dejection that Amos's heart was
touched.

"Where do you live?"

"Nowhere now. Master Piemont declares I shall not stay in the house
anothe