"If it isn't too much trouble, Mr. Kinnison, we should like you to tell
us all about what the club had to do with the tea-party, and how that
affair was conducted," said one of the young men, named Hand, filling
the veteran's plate.

"He can tell you much better than any one else," remarked Mr. Pitts. "I
can vouch for the bold part he took in it, and he has a better memory
than the rest of us."

"No flattery, Pitts," returned Mr. Kinnison. "My memory 's bad enough,
and as for taking such a bold part in that tea-party, it's all nonsense.
If there was a leader, you was the man. But I'll tell these young men
all I know of the affair, and what the Lebanon Club had to do with it."

"Take some of this beef, Mr. Brown?" interrupted Hand.

"Much obliged, sir, but beef is rather too tough for my gums," replied
the old fifer. "I'll try something else." Mr. Kinnison went on with his
narrative.

"Well, the seventeen men of our club determined, whether we were aided
or not, to destroy the tea which the East India Company had sent to
Boston. The plan was soon formed, as it always is when men are
determined to do a thing. We wanted no captain--each man could command
for himself. We resolved to disguise ourselves in Mohawk dresses, and
carry such arms as would enable us to sell our lives pretty dearly; we
also pledged ourselves never to reveal the names of any of the party
while there was danger in it. We expected to have a fight anyhow, and
the first man who faltered was to be thrown overboard with the tea. We
came to Boston and found the people ripe for the deed. A great meeting