Neither the thought of poor Silver Heels in the hands of a brutal British officer, nor the possibility that we might come to grief when, on the morrow, we ventured into the town of York, prevented me from gaining all the rest a lad needs, as may be judged by the fact that not until the sun was an hour high in the heavens, and Saul was shaking me into consciousness, did I have knowledge of my surroundings.
Then it was, with a feeling of shame, that I started to my feet, none the worse for having been stretched out so long on the bare ground; but deep down in my heart was a painful sense of having shown myself a child, by thus indulging in repose when others stood ready to aid in the task which should have been all my own.
"Have you lads given over going into the village this morning, that you sleep so late and so soundly?" Saul asked with a note of scorn in his tones, and I replied quickly, as if making apology for having been such a laggard:
"Even though we had risen as early as did you, it would not have been wise for us to go forward, yet I am free to admit that it might have been more seemly had we opened our eyes before sunrise."
"It is to my mind that we were wise to get all the sleep possible," little Frenchie said with a shrug of the shoulders. "A good soldier should be able to sleep anywhere and at any time, and it is his duty to take advantage of every opportunity to rest, in order that he may be the better able to undergo fatigue when it becomes necessary."
"But you are not a soldier," Saul said sharply, as if offended by the words; but Pierre, nothing daunted, replied cheerily:
"Yet am I in a fair way to be one, having enrolled myself as a Minute Boy. I am much the same as an apprentice, according to my way of thinking, and, being so, should copy after my elders—"
"Meaning that you ought to sleep like a laggard until the sun is high in the heavens?" Saul cried and I, growing irritated because he persisted in harping upon our indolence, said, speaking quite as sharply as had he:
"We have done no harm by being laggards. I would like for you to explain how we might have been advantaged by awakening at daybreak and sitting here waiting for you to come? It seems to me just as well that we should sleep, as sit around twiddling our thumbs."
"I was astir a full hour before daybreak, attending to the work set me, else I would not be here thus early, ready to make the venture as agreed upon."