maimed ambition, unless--unless as I would fain believe, the spirit is
stronger than the body. It is the _will_ that counts.

RIGBY.
You're wiser than most lads, Richard. You've a head on your shoulders.
I've known you long; but you have never spoken--until to-night. It was
your will that took you through your puny childhood, fatherless,
motherless, and made your stern old uncle proud of you. Why now be
down-hearted? I've heard you spoken of as a lad of spirit by Dr.
Warren, aye, and by Paul Revere.

RICHARD.
There's a patriot for you! Would I could do such deeds as he can do.
Oh, all I think of is to serve my country--my city and my country!

RIGBY.
That's all I think on, too.

RICHARD
(amazed).
You, Tom Rigby?

RIGBY
(somewhat bitterly).
Did I seem to you only a waistcoat with buttons? Nay, don't protest!
'Tis how most folks think of me. What have I to do with valor? I'm Tom
the landlord, Tom the tapster, Tom the tavern-keeper! How should they
guess in me Tom the patriot, Tom the hero-worshiper? And yet there's
not one bit of my country's past, not one smallest Indian war but what
has meaning for me. What do you think those chests are full of?