"Perhaps you think now that I'm the only one who is stirred up, eh?" the barber's apprentice asked, triumphantly. "This crowd is going to Liberty Hall. When you get there you'll find more than a thousand, all shouting the same thing."
That which caused Amos and Jim more surprise than anything else, was the fact that not a soldier could be seen upon the streets. Ordinarily one could not walk through Corn Hill without meeting many privates, as well as officers, lounging on the sidewalk.
That the citizens were deeply excited over what had occurred, both the boys understood as they continued on toward the common meeting-place; but they had no idea how deeply the populace were moved, until arriving within sight of the Liberty Tree, where they saw the ground immediately beneath its broad limbs literally packed with human beings.
The gathering in front of Master Theophilus Lillie's shop had been as nothing compared with this.
There the throng had been composed chiefly of boys, but here men were gathered, and Amos had a better idea of the gravity of the situation when he recognised on the outskirts of the crowd reputable merchants, whom he knew could not be easily induced to lend countenance to anything which did not really affect the welfare of the Colony.
Forcing their way here and there among the excited multitude, where were a dozen speakers, each haranguing those nearest him, the boys learned that the determination of the citizens was that the soldiers should be forced to leave the city, and that the affray between the military and the rope-makers was but an incident which had brought about the uprising at this particular time, rather than something to be avenged.
They also heard that the mob had assembled near the barracks early in the afternoon for the evident purpose of taking up the quarrel of the workmen, but had been dispersed by the troops.
It was also reported that the commanding officer of the Twenty-ninth Regiment had made formal complaint to Lieutenant-Governor Hutchinson, not only of the insults which his men had received at the rope-walk, but from the citizens at different times.