ays ago while in the commission of a crime in the city."

"Did you see it, Captain?"

"Yes, Tom. You and your mother are now free."

Tom asked no questions, but presently said:

"I would like to join the Liberty Boys. Mother is doing very well, the
little children are being cared for, and there is a good man up at
Tarrytown who has lost his wife and needs some one to take care of his
children. Mother can do it, and I think---"

"She will marry him in time, Tom? Yes, it will be good for both of them.
She likes him?"

"Yes, and so do all of us. Is it wrong for me to think that we are
better off now that he has been taken away?"

"You need not think anything about it, Tom, but you are better off, for
all that. The man was simply a clog about the necks of all of you."

"Then I may join the Liberty Boys, if I am big enough? Mother does not
need me now and I want to do something for my country."

"Your mother is willing, Tom?"

"Yes, if you will take me."

"Very good. You are young, but not too young, and you are strong and
willing, and that is a good deal. I will see your mother, Tom, and I do
not think there will be any trouble about your joining."

Tom returned to his mother and in a day or so Dick saw her and found
that she was willing that Tom should join the company. Tom went back
with Dick, therefore, and was sworn in as one of the Liberty Boys, to
his great delight. The boys cheered him for they had all heard of him
and knew of his sterling character and manly qualities. He fought with
the Liberty Boys at White Plains and Fort Washington and went into the
Jerseys with the troop when they joined the commander after the fall of
the fort. He was at Trenton and Princeton, where he did brave work with
the boys and fought through the succeeding campaign, doing good service
at Brandywine and Germantown and going into camp at Valley Forge, where
he bore with fortitude all the hardships of that rigorous winter, one of
the severest ever known. During the next spring he was with the Liberty
Boys in Connecticut and lost his life during a fight with Tryon's
raiders. His mother had married in the meantime and was in comfortable
circumstances, and this was a great comfort to the boy, who said to
Dick:

"I have done my duty, Captain?"

"Yes, Tom, and well."

"And mother and the children are well and happy?"

"Yes, they are, Tom."

"We are sure to win this fight for freedom, Captain?"

"Yes, Tom, we cannot do ot