of General Abercrombie’s forces, and Major Putnam, down here, was with the crowd. That’s when the major wouldn’t let his lordship go into the battle first; but banged right along ahead until we come to the first breastworks, finding it so strong that the troops were marched back to the landin’ place and went into bivouac for the night. It was the sixth day of July; on the eighth we tried it again; but the fort couldn’t be carried, an’ the blood that was shed there, lad, all under the British flag, would come pretty nigh drownin’ every man, woman an’ child in this ’ere settlement. On the twenty-sixth of July in the year 1759, General Amherst with eleven thousand men scared the French out; they didn’t fire a gun, but abandoned the fortification and fled to Crown Point. Since that time the king’s forces have held it.”
“How many are there now?” Isaac asked, not so much for the purpose of gaining information as to tempt the old man to continue his story.
“I can’t rightly say, lad, though it’s somewhere in the neighborhood of fifty. The commandant is, or was when I last heard, one Captain Delaplace, and it is said that he’s a thorough soldier, though I’m allowin’ he hasn’t got any too much of a force with him.”
“Do you think the Connecticut gentlemen can raise men enough between here and there to take a fort which resisted General Abercrombie’s entire army?”
“That remains to be seen, lad. If they are willin’ to act on such advice as can be got from some people hereabouts, I allow there’s a good chance for it, more especially if the Green Mountain boys take a hand in the matter, as Master Phelps thinks probable. In that case Colonel Ethan Allen would most likely be in command.”
“And you are really going, corporal?” asked Isaac.
“Yes, lad, it don’t seem as though I ought to hang back back when I’m needed. If all we hear from the other provinces is true, you’ll be old enough to take a hand in the scrimmage before the fightin’s over, so here’s a chance to serve an apprenticeship. If it so be you’re of the mind I’ll take you under my wing, an’ by the time we get back you’ll have a pretty decently good idea of a soldier’s trade.”
“Do you really mean it, corporal?” and Isaac sprang to his feet in excitement. “Do you really mean that I may go with you just as if I was of age to carry a gun?”
“Ay, lad, if it so be your mother an’ father are willin’, an’ I can’t see why they shouldn’t agree, seein’s how they know the company you’ll be in. It would seem different if you talked of goin’ with the general run of recruits, who are green hands at this kind of work.”
“But will the committee allow a lad of my age to go as a soldier?”
“Isaac, my boy, when Corporal ’Lige says to Master Phelps, says he, ‘This ’ere lad is goin’ under my wing, so to speak,’ why bless your heart, that’s the end of the whole business. They’ve got to have me, an’ won’t stand out about your joinin’ when it’s known my heart is set on it.”
“Will you come now while I ask my mother?”
“Well, lad, I ain’t prepared to say as how I will; but this much I’m promisin’: Go to her an’ find out how she’s feelin’ about the matter. If there’s any waverin’ in her mind I’ll step in – you see I’ll be the reserves in this case – an’ when I charge she’s bound to surrender. But if it so happens that she’s dead set against it at the start, why, you had best not vex her by tryin’ to push the matter.”
Having perfect faith in the corporal’s wisdom Isaac was thoroughly satisfied with this decision, and after the old man had promised to await his return at that point, the lad set out for home at full speed.
Perhaps if Isaac had been the only son of his mother he would have found it difficult to gain her permission for such an adventure as Corporal ’Lige had proposed.
There were five other boys in the family, and Isaac was neither the oldest nor the youngest.
The fact that Mrs. Rice had so many did not cause her to be unmindful of any, but less timorous perhaps, about parting with one.
However it may be, the lad gained the desired permission providing his father would assent, and this last was little more than a formality.
Master Rice was found among the throng of citizens in front of the inn where recruiting was going on briskly.
The opportunity served to give the good man a certain semblance of patriotism when he showed himself willing that one of his sons should go for a soldier, and he would have had the boy sign the rolls then and there, but that Isaac demurred.
It was not in his mind to enlist save in the company and after being again assured of the corporal’s protection, therefore he insisted on presenting himself as the old man’s recruit rather than his father’s offering.
Corporal ’Lige was well pleased when Isaac returned with a detailed account of all that had taken place, and said approvingly:
“You have shown yourself to be a lad of rare discretion, Isaac Rice, and I will take it upon myself to see that such forethought brings due reward. Suppose you had signed the rolls at the inn? What would you be then? Nothin’ more than a private.”
“But that is all I shall be when I sign them with you, corporal.”
“It may appear that way, I’m free to admit lad; but still you will be a deal higher than any non-commissioned officer, because you’ll be under my wing, and when we have taken Ticonderoga, though I ain’t admitting that’s the proper name of the fort – when we’ve taken that, I say, you’ll be fit for any kind of a commission that you’re qualified to hold.”
“Yes,” Isaac replied doubtfully, and then he fell to speculating as to whether even though Corporal ’Lige did not “take him under his wing,” he might not be fit to fill any position for which “he was qualified.”
While he was thus musing a messenger came from Master Phelps saying the recruiting was coming to an end in this town, and the party would set out that same afternoon on their way to Bennington, expecting to enlist volunteers from Colonel Easton’s regiment of militia as they passed through the country.
“Never you fear but that I’ll be right at my post of duty when the command is given to form ranks,” Corporal ’Lige said to the messenger, and after the latter had departed he added as he turned to the boy, “Now, Isaac, lad, you can see what they think of Corporal ’Lige. Colonel Easton and Master Brown are hangin’ ’round the inn instead of waitin’ for the committee to visit them. An’ what do I do? Why, I stay quietly here, knowin’ they can’t well get along without me, an’ instead of coolin’ my heels among a lot of raw recruits, I’m sent for when the time is come, as if I was a staff officer. That’s one thing you want to bear in mind. If you don’t count yourself of any importance, other people are mighty apt to pass you by as a ne’er-do-well.”
“But I haven’t enlisted yet, corporal.”
“Of course you have. When you said to me ‘I’m ready to go as your apprentice in this ’ere business,’ it was jest the same as if you’d signed the rolls. I’ll arrange all that matter with Master Phelps, my lad. Now do you hasten home; get what you can pick up in the way of an outfit; borrow your father’s gun, and kind of mention the fact to your mother that the more she gives in the way of provisions the better you’ll be fed, for you an’ me are likely to mess together.”
“How much are you going to take, corporal?”
“That
