disagreeable to me as a boy's first hard lesson in grammar is to
him, and seemed to me as useless, for I did not then know what I was
made for, nor of what use all this stuffing could be. But when my
master pulled the trigger, and I heard the neighboring hills echo
and reecho with the sound, I began to feel that I was made for
something, and grew a little vain at the thought of the noise I
should make in the world.

I did not then know all I was created for; it seemed to me that it
was only to make a great noise. I soon learned better, and
understood the purpose of my being more perfectly.

A few days after this, the family was all astir some time before
sunrise. There was a solemn earnestness in their faces, even in the
youngest of them, that was very impressive.

At last, my master took me up, put me in complete order, loaded me
and set me down in the same place, saying as he did so, "Now all is
ready." His wife sighed heavily. He looked at her and said, "My
dear, would you not have us defend our children and firesides
against the oppressors?"

"Yes," she said, "go, but my heart must ache at the thought of what
may happen. If I could only go with you!"

They sat silent for a long time, holding each other's hands, and
looking at their children, till, just at sunrise, his brother John,
that sleeping child's grandfather, rushed into the house, crying,
"They are in sight from the hill. Come, Tom, quickly, come to the
church." My master seized me in a moment, kissed his wife and