ving and
his shoulders shrugged nearly to his ears, would insist again and again
that if no more than three should set themselves about striving to do
something in aid of those who were battling against the king, much of
good might be accomplished.

Then Saul, without really meaning to be unkind, would cry out that
Colonel Simcoe had better have a care when our company of three Virginia
Minute Boys set out on the war-path, and while his friendly scorn
fretted me now and then, it did not distress Pierre in the least.

I say it did not distress him, and yet I may be mistaken, for after Saul
had repeated Uncle 'Rasmus's maxim, and spoken sneeringly of the fear
which a company of Minute Boys numbering three might produce throughout
the colony, little Frenchie said, waving his hands as if to brush my
cousin aside:

"Oh, well, if you are afraid, then it would not be of avail even though
you had a company of twenty."

"Afraid!" Saul cried, the red blood flushing his face as he advanced
almost threateningly toward the little fellow from New Orleans. "Do you
dare come here and tell a Virginian that he is afraid of any person who
walks this earth even though he wear a crown?"

"I did not say you _were_ afraid," Pierre replied sweetly, still
shrugging his shoulders and waving his hands. "I said _if_ you were
afraid, then it would not do for you to talk of being a Minute Boy. It
is only those lads in the colonies who dare do this or dare do that, who
could be of value to the Cause."

Now it is just possible little Frenchie was irritated when he made this
reply; but however it came about, certain it is from that moment Saul
ceased to throw cold water upon the plan of raising a company of Minute
Boys, and no longer quoted Uncle 'Rasmus, or spoke scornfully of what
might be accomplished, yet at the same time he was not enthusiastic
about it until after that sixth of July, when at Green Spring plantation
the British under my Lord Cornwallis met the Americans commanded by
General Lafayette, the king's troops getting much the best of the
battle.

I had thought Saul might strive to get even with Pierre by pointing out
that the young French general was defeated where an American might have
been victorious; but no, he held his peace concerning the nationality of
the commander of the army, and seemed all afire with a desire to do
something with his own hands that should be of benefit to the Cause.

He insisted we form ourselves int