child come 'fore we 'spected it one night.
I done what I could but suthin' went wrong. They tuk the high trail,
both on 'em. I rigged up a sled an' drawed their poor remains into a
settlement. That were a hard walk--you hear to me. No, sir, I
couldn't never marry no other womern--not if she was a queen covered
with dimon's--never. I 'member her so. Some folks it's easy to fergit
an' some it ain't. That's the way o' it."

Mr. and Mrs. Irons respected the scout, pitying his lonely plight and
loving his cheerful company. He never spoke of his troubles unless
some thoughtless person had put him to it.

2

That winter the Irons family and Solomon Binkus went often to the
meetings of the Sons of Liberty. One purpose of this organization was
to induce people to manufacture their own necessities and thus avoid
buying the products of Great Britain. Factories were busy making looms
and spinning-wheels; skilled men and women taught the arts of spinning,
weaving and tailoring. The slogan "Home Made or Nothing," traveled far
and wide.

Late in February, Jack Irons and Solomon Binkus went east as delegates
to a large meeting of the Sons of Liberty in Springfield. They
traveled on snowshoes and by stage, finding the bitterness of the
people growing more intense as they proceeded. They found many women
using thorns instead of pins and knitting one pair of stockings with
the ravelings of another. They were also flossing out their silk gowns
and spinning the floss into gloves with cotton. All this was to avoid
buying goods sent over from Great Britain.

Jack tells in a letter to his mother of overtaking a young man with a
pack on his back and an ax in his hand on his way to Harvard College.
He was planning to work in a mill to pay his board and tuition.

"We hear in every house we enter the stories and maxims of Poor
Richard," the boy wrote in his letter. "A number of them were quoted
in the meeting. Doctor Franklin is everywhere these days."

The meeting over, Jack and Solomon went on by stage to Boston for a
look at the big city.

They arrived there on the fifth of March a little after dark. The moon
was shining. A snow flurry had whitened the streets. The air was
still and cold. They had their suppers at The Ship and Anchor. While
they were eating they heard that a company of British soldiers who were
encamped near the Presbyterian Meeting-House had beaten their drums on
Sunday so that no worshiper