“We will sit here on the steps,” said Dick. “It is pleasant out of doors.”
“Very well,” and the man hastened away.
The youths sat down and waited, and in ten or fifteen minutes there were a dozen men gathered there in front of the house. After greeting the youths, they discussed the matter at issue, and finally decided that the only feasible course was to take some essential household goods and go to a swamp a mile and a half distant. There was a small island in the middle of the swamp, they said, that would furnish them an abiding-place for a while, until the redcoats went away, and as the path leading to the island in the swamp was a narrow and crooked one, they did not think the redcoats could follow it. At any rate they could not do so in the dark.
As soon as this decision had been settled upon, the women were notified, and at once all began work. Even the children helped, and soon all the household goods of much value that could be carried had been brought out, and were gotten into shape for carrying.
Dick, Tom and Ben, of course, had helped, and at Dick’s suggestion some of the children had been stationed out in the forest two or three hundred yards, to keep watch and give warning in case the redcoats should be heard approaching.
The settlers had just finished the work of getting the household goods out of the houses, when the young sentinels came running up and said that they had heard voices, and had seen forms moving amid the trees.
“The redcoats are coming!” said Dick. “You must get away from here quickly. There is no time to lose.”
“You’re right,” said Mr. Williams, the first man the youths had spoken to at the settlement.
“Gather up the goods and we will start for the swamp.”
This was done, and men, women and children, loaded down with the household effects, staggered through the woods, following the lead of Mr. Williams.