es representing the
people in this case."

"Come with me, and you will soon see who is doing the representing,"
Hardy cried, angrily. "You fellows don't know everything, even though
you think you do."

"We have never made claim to such distinction, nor do we believe we
are expected to drive the redcoats out of Boston. But if the city is
in such a turmoil as you would have us think, why are you here,
instead of at Liberty Hall?"

"I have been there since an hour before noon, and only left when I had
to go for something to eat. Now I am on my way back."

"We'll go with you," and Amos began to believe that perhaps there was
more truth in Hardy's story than he had previously been willing to
admit. "Have you abandoned Master Piemont entirely?" he asked, as the
three went into the street.

"I may go back there when the Britishers are driven away; but it ain't
likely I shall much before then. When there's work like this to be
done, you'll find me with those who love their country."

"And that is brawling on the waterside, I suppose?"

Hardy was about to make an angry reply, when a throng of men and boys
were seen marching in something approaching military precision up Corn
Hill, shouting from time to time:

"Drive the rascals out! Down with the 'bloody backs!'"

Now there could no longer be any question in the minds of Jim and Amos
but that Hardy's story was more nearly true than was at first
believed, and immediately they began to share his excitement.

"Perhaps you think now that I'm the only one who is stirred up, eh?"
the barber's apprentice asked, triumphantly. "This crowd is going to
Liberty Hall. When you get there you'll find more than a thousand, all
shouting the same thing."

That which caused Amos and Jim more surprise than anything else, was
the fact that not a soldier could be seen upon the streets. Ordinarily
one could not walk through Corn Hill without meeting many privates, as
well as officers, lounging on the sidewalk.

That the citizens were deeply excited over what had occurred, both the
boys understood as they continued on toward the common meeting-place;
but they had no idea how deeply the populace were moved, until arriving
within sight of the Liberty Tree, where they saw the ground immediately
beneath its broad limbs literally packed with human beings.

The gathering in front of Master Theophilus Lillie's shop had been as
nothing compared with this.

There the throng had been composed c