Chapter III
Ben Foster Brings Important News
“Oh, Dick, is it true that you and Tom are going to enter the army and fight for liberty?”
“Yes, it is true, Elsie. Aren't you glad?”
“Y-yes, Dick,” replied Elsie Foster, hesitatingly. “I'm glad you are to be a soldier, but I–well, you might get killed you know, and–and–”
“Would you care, Elsie?”
Elsie Foster was the daughter of Robert Foster, the nearest neighbor of the Dares. Mr. Foster was a king's man, but he was different from the other Tories of the neighborhood, in that he was an honest, honorable man, and was a friend of the Dares. He had had nothing to do with the capture of Mr. Dare, and was outspoken in his denunciation of his Tory neighbors for the deed they had committed.
Dick had gone over to the Foster home to borrow something for his mother, and had met Elsie out in the yard, and the girl had greeted Dick as above. The truth was that Dick and Elsie were great friends. They were school-mates, and whenever there was anything going on in the neighborhood, such as spelling schools, skating parties, etc., Dick was Elsie's companion. Elsie was seventeen, and she had a brother, Ben, he being her twin, and a sister, Lucy, aged fifteen. The three young folks of the Dare family and the three of the Foster family often got together of evenings and had a pleasant time, but now that Dick and Tom were going away to the war, it would break into this arrangement.
When Dick asked Elsie if she would care if he should get killed in battle, she blushed and looked confused at first, and then she looked him frankly in the eyes and said, softly. “You know I would, Dick.”
“I'm glad to know that, Elsie,” said Dick, earnestly.