Jim Freeman and his companions came along a few moments after Darius left, and in order to have some occupation, rather than from a desire to serve them, I offered to put the three aboard the Avenger.
They talked of nothing but what they would do once the enemy gave them an opportunity, until I asked petulantly:
"Is everybody in Benedict as eager to shed blood as are you?"
"Not much," Jim cried with a laugh. "There's Elias Macomber, for example—he's an Englishman, you know, an' hasn't been in this country more'n four years. He's makin' a lot of wild talk 'bout what he'll do to us folks when the Britishers come up the river."
"What reason has he to make any fuss?" I asked, rather for the sake of saying something, than because I desired information.
"Well, I suppose all hands have roughed into him pretty bad, on account of things he's said, an' now he counts on showin' what his countrymen can do."
Now it was that I began to feel glad because of having said nothing in opposition to joining Commodore Barney's fleet. By hanging back while all the others were taking up arms, I would be ranging myself on the side of Elias Macomber, which would have caused me to be ashamed of myself, for he was by no means a reputable citizen.
However glad I might be because I had refrained, or been prevented, from saying that which would have made it appear as if I took sides with the British, I was in nowise reconciled to the idea of going where the bullets were like to be flying, and, after putting Jim and his friend aboard the Avenger, I pulled back to the shore in anything rather than a cheerful frame of mind.
Darius was waiting for me, and he must have run every step of the way from the river to my father's home. He had with him a small bundle wrapped in one of mother's blankets, and said as he pulled the bow of the canoe up on the mud:
"I reckon it is jest as well that I went after your dunnage, lad, for your mother was ready to have a cryin' fit, which she couldn't perlitely let come on while I was there; but I'll warrant the water would have run had you been alone with her."