“'Thank you, sir!' said the gineral. 'I'm glad to see one brave fellow that can stand his ground. You didn't run.'
“Uncle David said he felt pretty cheap, 'cause he know'd in his own heart that he would 'a' run, only he was too weak to git over the fence; but he didn't tell the gineral that, I bet He put the compliment in his pocket, and said nothing; for now the gineral's aides came riding up full drive, and told him they must be off out of the field in a minute, or the British would have 'em, and so one on 'em took Uncle David up behind him, and away they cantered. It was a pretty close shave too: the British was only a few rods behind 'em.
“Oh, dear, if they had caught him!” said I. “Only think!”
“Well, they would have hung him; but we should have had another in his place,” said Aunt Lois. “The war wouldn't 'a' stopped.”
“Well, 'twas to be as 'twas,” said my grandmother. “The Lord had respect to the prayers of our fathers, and he'd decreed that America should be free.”
“Yes,” said Sam: “Parson Badger said in one o' his sermons, that men always was safe when they was goin' in the line o' God's decrees: I guess that are was about it. But, massy! is that are the nine o'clock bell? I must make haste home, or I dun' know what Hetty 'll say to me.”