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 into a company of Minute Boys at once, even though there were but three of us, claiming even as little Frenchie had claimed days and days before, that it might be possible even for so small a number to accomplish considerable of good, and promising that as the time went by we would be able to add to our numbers.
And thus it was that Saul and I, two Virginia lads, joined with Pierre, a Frenchie, to form a company of Minute Boys in aid of the Cause of Liberty, and even went so far, after agreeing among ourselves that we were to stand by each other so long as life should last, to write a letter to Master Patrick Henry telling him of what we had done and offering our services, much the same as if they might be of great value.
The strangest part of all, as it seemed to me, was that Master Henry did actually answer the letter which Saul wrote; did really speak of us as if it might be possible that we do somewhat of good to the Cause, and commending us for coming together in such a fashion. It was much as if he believed he was writing to three men of importance in Virginia, who could do this, or do that, according to their will, instead of three lads who had hardly ever, with the exception of Pierre, ventured off the Hamilton plantation.