sent to aid the children of Israel.

Had it not been for the people in the other colonies who sent us rice,
wheat and even money, there were many in our town of Boston who would
have died of starvation. Why even the charitable men of London, who must
have understood that we were being wronged, subscribed one hundred and
fifty thousand dollars for the poor among us.

I have heard it said that even the most cowardly animal will fight when
he is cornered and his life threatened, and so it was with us. The men
banded themselves together as if for war, and made ready for the
struggle which all knew must be near at hand, unless his majesty should
succeed in gaining better sense than he had shown since our people built
up for him a nation in this New World.

We lads did not believe it possible we could do anything at such a time;
but looked forward to the day when, having come to man's estate, we
might enlist as soldiers to drive out General Gage, and such as he, from
among us.

Then the fortifications on the Neck were strengthened, the better to
hold us prisoners; all the gunpowder belonging to the province that had
been stored at Charlestown and Cambridge was seized by the man who had
made of himself our jailor, and we were terrified by rumors that the
king's ships were about to open fire on the town because our people were
arming themselves.

The true men of New York, Connecticut, Vermont, and from all the country
roundabout Boston, rose up in their might, marching at their best pace
to our assistance, and General Gage must have understood that he was
stirring up a hornet's nest, for the rumors were denied, and those who
would have begun the war then and there, returned to their homes.

If you will believe it, there were, at the close of the year 1774,
eleven regiments of British soldiers in Boston, to say nothing of all
the artillery, and yet more were coming. Five hundred marines were
landed from the Asia Man-of-War, and thousands of lobster backs were
voyaging from the Jerseys, New York, and Quebec!

Was it any wonder that we of Boston were the same as eaten out of our
homes? These men wearing red-coats were not suffered to lack for the
best of food; but it mattered little what we colonists had, and yet
there were those among us, born and bred in Boston town, who claimed
that General Gage was acting the part of an honest man!

At the beginning of the year 1775 no less than an hundred and fifty
soldiers were on