CHAPTER XIV.
The evening proved a rainy one and cool for the season; but the "Dolphin's" cabin was found an agreeable resort. All gathered there, and at once there was an urgent request from the young people that the interrupted story of the battle of Bunker Hill might be resumed.
"You know, Papa, we left off just where Prescott's men were digging and making a redoubt," said Lulu. "The night before the battle, wasn't it?"
"Yes," he replied. "The British were greatly astonished when daylight revealed the work that had been going on during the hours of darkness; for it was done so quietly that their suspicions had not been aroused.
"No shout disturbed the night
Before that fearful fight;
There was no boasting high,
No marshalling of men
Who ne'er might meet again;
No cup was filled and quaffed to victory!
No plumes were there,
No banners fair,
No trumpets breathed around;
Nor the drum's startling sound
Broke on the midnight air."
"What nice verses, Papa!" said Gracie. "Did you make them yourself?"
"No, daughter," he replied, "it was merely a quotation from John Neal, one of our own American poets.
"But to go on with my story. As soon as the British discovered the redoubt our men had constructed on Breed's Hill, the captain of the 'Lively' put springs on his cables and opened a fire upon it without waiting for orders.