Save for the attendance upon the wounded, the farmers of Bennington might have thought the fight with and pursuit of the Yorkers only a dream, so readily did they settle down to their farm duties.
Several weeks passed and no sign of any move was made by the Yorkers.
Ethan Allen had sent a full account of the affair to the Governor of New Hampshire, by the hands of his brother Ira, but save for saying that the account should be read carefully, the governor had taken no further notice.
Seth Warner had a cousin in Albany, and he induced him to send regular reports of the doings in New York, in so far as they effected the New Hampshire grants.
And during all those weeks the news came that nothing was being done. Ethan believed in the old adage that a quiet always preceded a storm, and he held himself in readiness to meet it.
The Green Mountain Boys were drilled regularly, and the watchword was looked for whenever any met the chosen messengers of the colonel.
Eben had proved himself very useful, but for several days he had been away, and Ethan was getting uneasy about him.
July had come, with all its heat and unpleasantness, and still Eben was absent.
That something had happened to him all believed, for he had never been known to absent himself from his friends for so long a time before.
It was on the tenth of July that Eben craved entrance to the residence of Ethan Allen.