The Dare Boys of 1776 by Stephen Angus Cox
page 6 of 145 (04%)
page 6 of 145 (04%)
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about. Dick and Tom explained that the two youths who had been floored
were Tories, and the sympathies of the crowd were at once with Dick and Tom, more especially when they learned that the Tory boys had picked the quarrel with the patriots. "You did just right in knocking them down!" was the cry, and so hostile were the looks, actions and words of the crowd, that Zeke and Lem on scrambling to their feet, did not renew the fight. They shook their fists at Dick and Tom, however, and muttered threats, as they moved away through the crowd declaring that they would get even with Dick and Tom. The patriot youths received the congratulations and commendations of the people in their vicinity with becoming modesty, and a little later moved on up the street. They walked about for an hour or more, after that, and then took up their station as near the old State House as they could. There was such an immense crowd there that it was impossible to get within half a block of the building. In the steeple of the State House was a bell, and the old bell-ringer sat beside it, waiting for the moment when his son, stationed below, should give him word that the Declaration had been adopted, when he would ring the bell. He had been stationed there since morning, waiting, waiting, and as the day wore away and still the word to ring came not, he shook his head and muttered that they would never reach a favorable conclusion. But he was mistaken, for when evening was almost at hand, his son came rushing out of the State House and called up eagerly and excitedly: |
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