My mother met me at the door—“James, stay at home!” said she;
“If you, my youngest born, should fall, what would become of me?
And then, a boy in such a fight of little use can be—”
With that she raised her hand to brush away an oozing tear,
And added—“It was but in June you reached your sixteenth year;
So, while your brother is away, remain to guard us here.
These Hessians whom the king has sent, a hireling war to wage
On children as on bearded men, are ruthless in their rage;
Then go not hence to fall in fight, child of your mother’s age.”
“Fear not for me,” I answered her; “the Hessians I defy;