With manly pride the boy set forth. He longed to put the note in his
aunt's hand ere he went; but she (long ago it seemed, though only a
few days had passed) seemed to take no note of his frequent absences.
He had scarcely gone a rod ere the cannon-balls began their march into
Boston from all the fortifications of the Americans; and in return
from Boston, flying north and south and west, came shot and shells.
Undaunted and excited by the mere possibility of being hit, Jeremy
went onward. When he arrived in Roxbury he found everybody and
everything astir. His cart was seized, filled with bundles of
"screwed" hay, and, ere he knew it, he was in line with two hundred
and ninety-nine other carts, marching forward to fortify Dorchester
Heights. Before him went twelve hundred troops, under the command of
General Thomas; before the troops trundled an unknown number of carts,
filled with intrenching tools; before the tools were eight hundred
men. Not a word was spoken. In silence and with utmost care they trod
the way. At eight of the clock the covering party of eight hundred
reached the Height and divided--one-half going toward the point
nearest Boston, the other to the point nearest Castle William, on
Castle Island, held by the British.
Then the working party began their labor with enthusiasm unbounded,
wondering what the British general would think when he should behold
their work in the morning. They toiled in silence by the light of the
moon and the home music of 144 shot and 13 shell going into Boston,
and unnumbered shot and shell coming out of Boston. Gridley, whose
quick night work at Breed's Hill on the sixteenth of June had startled
the world, headed the intrenching party as engineer.
Poor Jeremy was not allowed to go farther than Dorchester Neck with
his first load. The bundles of hay were tumbled out and laid in line,
to protect the supplying party, in case the work going on on the hill
beyond should be found out.
The next time, to his extreme delight, he found that fascines were to
go in his cart. When he reached Dorchester Height quick work was made
of unloading his freight, and, without a word spoken, he was ordered
back with a move of the hand.
Four times the lad and the oxen went up Dorchester Hill that night.
The fourth time, as no order was given to return, Jeremy thought he
might as well stay and see the battle that would begin with the dawn.
He left the oxen behind an embankment with a big bundle of hay to the
front of them; and after five minutes devoted to gingerbread he went
to work. Morning would come long before they were ready to have it
unveil the growing forts to the eyes of Admiral Shuldham, with his
ships of war lying in the harbor; or to the sentinels at Castle
William, on Castle Island, to the right of them; or to General Howe,
with his vigilant thousands of Englishmen safe and snug in Boston, to
the north of them.
Jeremy was rolling barrels to the brow of the hill they were
fortifying, and tumbling into them with haste shovelful after
shovelful of good solid earth, that they might hit hard when rolled
down on the foe that should dare to mount the height, when a cautious
voice at his side uttered the one word "Look!" accompanied with a
motion of the hand toward Dorchester Neck.
In the moonlight, past the bales of hay, two thousand Americans were
filing in silent haste to the relief of the men who had toiled all
night to build forts they meant to defend on the morrow.
It was four o'clock in the morning when they came. Jeremy was tired
and sleepy too. His eyelids would drop over his eyes, shutting out
everything he so longed to keep in sight.
"You've worked like a hero," said a kind voice to the lad. "It will be
hot work here by sunrise--no place for boys, when the battle begins."
"I can fight," stoutly persisted Jeremy, nodding as he spoke; and, had
anybody thought of the lad at all after that, he might have been found
in the ox-cart, carelessly strewn over with hay, taking a nap.
Meanwhile on came the morning. A friendly fog hung lovingly around the
new hills on the old hills, that the Yankees had built in a night.
Admiral Shuldham was called in haste from his bed by frightened men,
who wondered what had happened on Dorchester Height. Castle William
stood aghast with astonishment. Messengers went up the bay to tell the
army the news.
General Howe marched out to take a look through the fog at the old
familiar hills he had known so long, and didn't like the looks of the
new hats they wore. He wondered how in the world the thing had been
done without discovery; but there it was, larger a good deal than
life, seen through the fog, and he knew also why it was that the
cannon had been playing on Boston through the hours of three or four
nights. He was angry, astonished, perplexed. He had a little talk with
Admiral Shuldham; and they agreed to do something. Yes, they _would_
walk up and demand back the hills looking over into Boston. Transports
came hurrying to pier and wharf, and soldiers went bravely down and
gave themselves to the work of a short sea voyage.
Meanwhile Jeremy Jagger's nap was broken by a number of trenching
tools thrown carelessly over his back, as he lay asleep in his cart.
"Halloo there!" he shouted, striving to rise from the not very
comfortable blanket that dropped in twain to the left and the right,
as he shook off the tools and returned from the land of sleep to
Dorchester Heights and the 5th of March. He was just in time to hear a
voice like a clarion cry out: "Remember it is the 5th of March, and
avenge the death of your brethren."
It was the very voice that had said in the swamp in the night that
"General Washington would gladly change places with Jeremy Jagger."
It was the voice of General Washington animating the troops for the
coming battle.
Meanwhile a new and unexpected force arrived on the field of action.
It came in from sea--a great and mighty wind, that tossed and tumbled
the transports to and fro on the waves and would not let them land
anywhere save at the place they came from. So they went peacefully
back to Boston, and the Liberty Men over on the hills went on all day
and all night, in the rain and the wind, building up, strengthening,
fortifying, in fact getting ready, as Jeremy told his aunt, when he
reached home on the morning of the sixth of March, "for a visit from
King George and all his army."
The next day General Howe doubted and did little. The next and the
next went on and then on the morning of the 17th of March something
new had happened. There was one little hill, so near to Boston that it
was almost in it; and lo! in the night it had been visited by the
Americans, and a Liberty Cap perched above its head.