ster backs that it was
impossible for any to get out save with a written pass, and equally
reasonable, since her son counted on becoming a soldier, that she
wanted to know if those who favored the Cause were ready to strike a
speedy blow against the king's officers.

On all these points we gratified her curiosity in so far as lay in our
power, meanwhile devouring her corn bread and fried pork without a
thought as to whether we might not be depriving the poor soul of that
which she absolutely needed to keep life in her shrivelled body.

We remained there an hour, and on taking our departure promised the good
woman that we would on the first opportunity seek out her son, in order
to tell him we had lately seen his mother.

Hiram Griffin was his name, so she told us, and I fixed it in my memory
with little thought that the day would soon come when, because of
keeping our promise to this old woman, we should be making the
acquaintance of one who would befriend us in our time of sorest need.

Mistress Griffin bade us adieu as if we were her own kith and kin, and I
for one felt the better for having come in touch with so kindly a soul
after the neglect, as it seemed to me, of Samuel Hadley's people to
minister to our needs.

During the remainder of the journey afoot we met, mayhap, a dozen
farmers who lived on our line of march, and it seemed to me much as if
they knew more concerning what the colonists would do in their own
behalf than did we, who were so lately come from town. I noted, as also
did Archie, so he told me later, that there was an air of anxious
expectancy about all these people when, judging from our dress that we
had come from Charlestown, or even Boston itself, they questioned us
concerning the doings of the Sons of Liberty, the enrollment of Minute
Men, and the smuggling of weapons across the Neck.

I said to myself that there was some movement afoot among these men
concerning which I had not heard, and then straightway reproved myself
for being such a simple as to believe they knew more regarding the
purpose of our friends than did I, who heard discussed every day
measures which would soon be taken to relieve ourselves of the burdens
which the king had put upon us.

As a matter of course we had no means of knowing, except through their
own speech, whether those we met were Tories, or true sons of the
colony, therefore it behooved us to be guarded in our words, putting
trust in no man however fairly